[oclug] More on Voting Reform (Condorcet)

[Adrian Irving-Beer]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2005 at 06:01:51PM -0500, Francis J. A. Pinteric wrote:

> For instance, in our case, for a board of nine members the election may
> look like this. As in Method 1, electors vote for candidates by ranking
> them in any order from 1 to 9, with 1 being most favourable and 9 the
> least. Electors need not vote for all nine candiates and those candiates
> not recieving a vote are not counted.
> 
> The ranking of each candidate by the electors are then converted into
> points such that each of the ranks from 1 to 9 have the following point
> values: 20, 18, 16, 13, 11, 9, 7, 4, 2 the sum of which totals 100.

This has the same problem as any other points-for-rank system.

It works great if everyone puts down all the numbers honestly, but
once they start voting strategically -- by not numbering candidates
they suspect will rank high on their opponents' ballots -- the value
of their own candidates rises sharply, and can oust most of their
opponents' honestly-ranked candidates, even if their opponents
outnumber them.

That's not to say that it wouldn't work for OCLUG.  It very well
might.  But it's not devoid of strategy, because refusing to vote is a
strong vote in itself.  And it also offers no more or less simplicity
to the average voter, who is still just ranking candidates 1 to 9.


All in all, I don't think anyone in the world has yet come up with the
perfect voting system, nor do I think OCLUG needs one.  My choice in
the vote will simply go to the one that has a proven track record,
allows the greatest degree of voter expression, and has the lowest
risk of being manipulated by small groups of smart voters.

I still believe that's Voting Reform proposal #1, but the actual vote
is what will eventually decide if that's inappropriate to the size and
scope of OCLUG.
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