First, Let’s Use the Right Terms in Filibuster Issue

The letters about filibuster (Dec. 12) use the imprecise terms “simple majority” and “super majority.” What then is a “compound majority”? Majority vote is the term to use. The word majority means more than half, meaning any number of legal votes higher than half the total legal votes cast. Qualifying the word “majority” by a prefix is meaningless. It should be abundantly clear the term “super-majority” is as meaningless as the term “simple majority.” However, the use of the term “two-thirds vote” is meaningful, just as is “three-fifths vote,” the latter used to stop a filibuster.

In the present Senate with all 100 senators casting their votes, 67 or any higher count of votes cast is a “two-thirds vote.” The casting of 60 or higher votes meets the requirement of a “three-fifths vote.”

Any attempt to use other terms is meaningless.

Brahama D. Sharma

Registered Parliamentarian

Pismo Beach