[EM] Majority Is When?

[Dave Ketchum]

I went to the current (10th or 2000) edition of Robert's Rules of Order
(RONR), adapting a bit.

How many is "all"?
        All who are old enough, etc., to legally register?
        All who are registered?
        All ballots cast in the election of interest?
        All who vote on this particular race - the standard "all".

How many is a majority?  More than half of those voting (5 if "all" is 8
or 9).

Should election laws or rules demand a majority?
        I claim NOT necessarily, though only the candidate best liked should
be a possible winner (law could permit random resolution of ties).
        RONR's primary audience is the deliberative assembly, in which
redoing preparation and voting is a trivial problem.
        Our primary audience is those preparing laws and rules for public
elections, for which runoffs are EXPENSIVE.

For Plurality or Approval, demand should be at least close to a majority,
    Due to clones and other problems voters may be unable to completely
express their desires, and need to amend their choices in a runoff.

For Condorcet, IRV, and Range, voters can more completely vote their
desires, so the leading candidate can be a clear preference even if much
less than a majority.

For others I offer no suggestions.

Rejecting unacceptable candidates - indicating by vote that those
nominating have failed in their task.  I claim we should fight for this,
and suggest it as doable as a standard write-in (the proposed "candidate"
being recognizable as not human):
        If either of the following get any votes, those votes are offered as
an embarrassment to the nominators.  If they win, embarrassment is the
totality of their ability to serve - just as other winners can be unable
to serve.
        NOTA (None Of The Above) - fits Plurality and Approval.
        NOE (No One Else) - fits Condorcet, IRV, and Range - ranked just as
any other write-in.

Note that RONR has "Preferential Voting" as a topic.  It shows IRV as an
example, but DOES NOT exclude other possible methods such as Condorcet.

DWK

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [EM] Majority Criterion, hidden contradictions
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:19:52 -0500
From: Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd at lomaxdesign.com>

...

  > If the method has not resulted in a victory for the majority
  > preference as described, *the electorate has approved of this
  > failure, through majority vote.*
  >
  > Approval satisfies Majority rule, but not the Majority Criterion as
  > interpreted.
  >
  > Many other methods don't demonstrate majority rule. That is, they
  > will accept a winner who has not been accepted by a majority, it is
  > quite possible that a majority would prefer a new election to be held
  > than to accept that winner. And if a majority *rejects* a candidate,
  > under basic democratic principles, that candidate should not take office.
  >
  > This is, indeed, the position of Robert's Rules of Order, as revised.....
-- 
    davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
    Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
              Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
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