[EM] PR in student government...
Jonathan Lundell
jlundell at pobox.com
Mon Apr 16 10:21:27 PDT 2007
On Apr 16, 2007, at 9:56 AM, Bob Richard wrote:
> The (alleged) complexity of STV is entirely a matter of the counting
> process; the task for the voter is actually very simple. Having said
> that, the conventional ways of explaining the count invariably lose
> audiences, and we need to learn how to present it better.
Yes, yes, yes, to all of that.
I'll add (from experience with internal Green Party elections) that a
big piece of the complexity argument is lack of familiarity. As we've
increasingly used STV, I find that voters become familiar--and
comfortable--with the concept, even though few of them could explain
the counting mechanism.
A caution, though: when adopting STV, it's important to fully specify
the method. Our biggest confusions have been over ambiguities in our
rules, which can lead to conflicting results.
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