While I see your point on the short list, Fody, I think that I would also be more for the seer protection idea than the short list. I think anyone that votes for an innocent to be lynched is automatically elevated to the top of everyone's suspect list, though they might not announce it for everyone to hear/see. And pretty much the same goes for anyone that didn't/couldn't vote, although that's sometimes based more on the villager's 'real life' circumstances.
edit: although we are not supposed to be referring to this as a 'game,' I do need to say just one thing: make sure that in our thinking up ways to make it easier for the us we don't make the village more of a bunch of mathematical processes than the game that it in fact is.