Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Political Affirmative Action

One of the methods the Bayit Yehudi is trying in order to revamp its image and make it relevant again is offering a realistic reserved spot for a woman and a "youngster." The highest ranking woman in the polls will get the 4th spot on the list and the highest ranking person under 40 will get the 5th spot on the list. If a woman or youngster receives a higher spot on the list, such as number 2, they use the reserved spot in their higher location. In other words, affirmative action is only relevant when the target population cannot reach the bar on their own.
An interesting issue has arisen in that one of the women running for the list, Ayelet Shaked, is also under 40. There are three iffy scenarios here.

1) If Ayelet gets the 4th spot, does that count for both woman and youngster and cancel out the other youngster spot?
2) If an older woman (not really an "older woman", but older then 40) gets the reserved woman spot and Ayelet Shaked has the highest votes of the under 40 candidates, would she get the youngster spot or can she only be a candidate for one reserved spot?
3) If Ayelet gets the most votes of both the younger and female candidates, which of the 2 positions would she fill? Would they let an older woman take the woman spot and give her the youngster spot?

The regulations committee has decided that a younger woman is able to represent both women and younger people, but the youngsters on the list feel that is quite a burden to put on young Mrs. Shaked. They have petitioned the Bayit Yehudi court to allow a candidate to only fill one affirmative action position at a time. They seem to agree that Ayelet can compete for both reserved spots and get whichever one is higher.
The petitioners are: Jeremy Gimpel (who we think will get in without affirmative action), Amiad Taoub, Yoni Shtabon and Ayelet herself.

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