[EM] Student government - what voting system to recommend?

[Tim Hull]

Hi,

I've appreciated all the feedback I've received on voting systems as they
pertain to student government.
Anyway, I'll be working on drafting an official resolution for a new system
over the summer, with the intent on
proposing something in the Fall for a student vote in the Fall elections
(the University of Michigan  has Fall and Winter semester elections),
with expected implementation (given a 60% yes vote of students) for the
Winter elections (which include executive officers).

Anyway, as this does require a 2/3 vote of the Assembly, I face quite a
battle.  As of now, many see changing the voting system as something
trivial that won't do much.  Also, they are skeptical of any system that
reduces student control over the result (such as party list or asset
voting).
Granted, many of the skeptics won seats with the majority party - but I
don't think that makes it impossible.

Given the fact that I'm going to face an uphill battle - and will need to
cite examples that show that my new system has benefits - what would be the
best
approach?

I do think that for multi-winner, STV is likely the best choice here - as it
is used my many student governments succesfully. Among other methods, I like
the idea of reweighted range voting, but it hasn't been implemented anywhere
of significance.  Systems where voters don't have full control over the
results (such as party list and asset), definitely won't fly.

For single-winner, despite its flaws it seems like instant-runoff voting is
the best bet, as it is the same as STV with one winner and is one again a
widely used system.  Range voting once again seems like a good idea, but
also has the major drawback (at least as far as supporting arguments) of not
being used in a real election of any significance.  I don't even want to
THINK about Condorcet, due to the fact that a random unknown candidate can
easily win in a race with two polarized candidates.

Any comments?  I figure that for STV, I'll suggest simple fractional
transfers (no Meek etc) and only ranking as many candidates as there are
seats (40-odd ranks would be quite confusing, and most students will only
vote for a few favorites).

Tim
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