What voting system(s) do you like? Poll for single-seat elections

[lpetrich]

And I see in your lab link that you can have examples where the IRV winner is not the Condorcet winner.
So, maybe IRV isn't a system I can support?

It's still better than FPTP or top two, even if it is not as good as a Condorcet method.

Maybe a Black (Condorcet+Borda) method? Or a Condorcet+IRV?
Well that doesn't change my vote in the poll, it's a preferential voting system anyway.

I was trying to keep the poll simple, to avoid getting into the details of preference-ballot counting.

US top two: the "jungle primary" or  Nonpartisan blanket primary in a  Two-round system.

 Borda count,  Instant-runoff voting

 Condorcet method:  Schulze method,  Ranked pairs,  Kemeny–Young method,  Minimax Condorcet,  Nanson's method with Baldwin's method,  Copeland's method,  Bucklin voting

Copeland's method is finding (all pairwise victories) - (all pairwise defeats) for each candidate, then finding which candidate has the highest value of that quantity.

Bucklin voting involves counting up first preferences, and if that gives no candidate with a majority of votes, then adding in the second preferences and so on down the line.


 Voting system has a big table of how various systems perform with various criteria.  Independence of clones criterion is about how similar candidates affect each other. Do they help each other (teaming)? Or hurt each other (spoiling)? Or affect other candidates (crowding)? Or none of these?

 

[dx713]

Copeland method would have the same problem than a FPTP or our two-turns methods: if a camp is divided into more alternatives, the opposite camp will rank higher simply by effect of having beaten more candidates (or, for FPTP or two-turns, for the divided camp to have their votes split).

Schultz still seems nice, a pity its mathematical demonstration isn't easy to get through to the less mathematical-savvy.

 

[lpetrich]

Although  Arrow's thorem states that a preference-voting algorithm cannot have certain nice properties at the same time, the Tideman and Schulze algorithms do the best job of satisfying multiple criteria. But I think that a criterion that a system ought to satisfy is clone independence. Candidates with similar voter appeal ought to neither help each other (teaming), hurt each other (spoiling), nor affect other candidates (crowding). Here's what  Voting system lists:

• None (good): Approval, IRV, Majority Judgment, Range, Tideman, Schulze
• Spoiling: Kemeny-Young, Minimax, FPTP, Runoff
• Teaming: Borda
• Teaming, Crowding: Copeland

Range voting or rated voting features being able to select a rating value per candidate, some number between 0 and 1 inclusive. These numbers are then added up. Approval voting can be extended to have disapproval, negative values, but that's like having range voting with rating values 0, 1/2, and 1. Another special case of range voting is cumulative voting. In it, the ratings all add up to 1. It is often implemented as multiple votes that one can distribute as one likes.

 

[ksen]

The Game-Changing Election Reform That Could Soon Be The Law In Maine

Organizers in Maine are out to prevent future scenarios like these where candidates are elected with a minority of the vote. The Committee for Ranked-Choice Voting is currently collecting signatures to force a referendum on the matter in 2015. The group has already gotten more than 45,000 signatures and aims to get about 15,000 more before it submits the list for certification in early January.

Ranked-Choice Voting, or RCV, works by having voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than casting a single vote.

 

[fromderinside]

Wow. So Mainers are going to vote until a majority of all eligible voters vote for one candidate over all others.

Or do you mean that a majority of registered voters who voted vote by majority for one candidate above all others.

Hypothetical. Small town election. Fifty citizens vote for five of eight candidates for five available positions. All eight candidates receive a majority 26 votes for the five available positions. 50x5=250. 31x8=248. It can happen. Now what?

Oh there's lots more....

 

[ksen]

That's not how irv elections work. Try again.

 

[Blahface]

The Game-Changing Election Reform That Could Soon Be The Law In Maine

Organizers in Maine are out to prevent future scenarios like these where candidates are elected with a minority of the vote. The Committee for Ranked-Choice Voting is currently collecting signatures to force a referendum on the matter in 2015. The group has already gotten more than 45,000 signatures and aims to get about 15,000 more before it submits the list for certification in early January.

Ranked-Choice Voting, or RCV, works by having voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than casting a single vote.

I'm not a big fan of IRV, but at least it is better than plurality. If IRV has to be implemented, I'd prefer a top four non-partisan primary be used.

 

[lpetrich]

Ranked Choice / Instant Runoff is a preference-voting system. You rank the candidates by your preference: 1, 2, 3, 4, ...

Instant Runoff is one of several algorithms for counting up preference votes. Here is how it works:

In each round, count up the top preferences. If a candidate gets a majority, then that one is a winner. Otherwise, remove the candidate with the fewest votes and treat subsequent counts as if that candidate was not in the race.

DemoChoice Polls features polls that use IRV, complete with round-by-round results for each poll.

I'm concerned, however, that opponents of IRV will start a massive hate campaign against it, something that right-wingers are expert at. So supporters should not take its passing for granted.

 

[Blahface]

The Game-Changing Election Reform That Could Soon Be The Law In Maine

Organizers in Maine are out to prevent future scenarios like these where candidates are elected with a minority of the vote. The Committee for Ranked-Choice Voting is currently collecting signatures to force a referendum on the matter in 2015. The group has already gotten more than 45,000 signatures and aims to get about 15,000 more before it submits the list for certification in early January.

Ranked-Choice Voting, or RCV, works by having voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than casting a single vote.

Overall, I support the Maine initiative, but I am very disappointed in at least one of the organizers.

Clay Shrentrup, one of the founders of the Center for Election Science wrote a blog about IRV in Maine back in February of last year. He notes one of his email conversations with Diane Russell, a state representative, IRV supporter, and one of the organizers of the IRV initiative. After trying to explain the problems of IRV, she dismisses his concerns with the following message:

Again, you have no vested interest in Maine. Why do you care? Oh wait... this is all you do. FOR YEARS.

It is unfortunate that people don't like to consider evidence against their beliefs. Her site for the initiative still lists the false talking points about IRV that she has already been corrected on.