[EM] Need for proportional representation

[Markus Schulze]

Dear DEMOREP1 at aol.com,

I haven't yet understood how you circumvent the Banzhaf Paradox?

[For those who don't know what Proxy Voting is: The Banzhaf Paradox says
that -if the members of a committee have different numbers of votes- then
the real voting power of a committee member can differ extremely from his
nominal voting power.
Example: A has 37 votes, B has 30 votes, C has 21 votes, D has 12 votes.
Then A, B, and C have the same voting power because every proposal needs
the approval of only two of them. D has no voting power.]

You wrote (30 Sep 1999):
> I have suggested many times having multi-member districts
> and proxy p.r.--
>
> Sec. ___ . (a) An Elector may vote for 1 or more legislative candidates
> on the ballots in a district (plus not more than [2] write-in votes) by
> voting 1, 2 and so forth for his or her first, second and so forth
> choices. (b) If there are more than [5] candidates (or remaining
> candidates) in the district, then the candidate having the lowest number
> of votes shall be a losing candidate. (c) Each vote for a losing
> candidate shall be transferred to the Elector's next choice (if any) who
> is a remaining candidate in the district. (d) The 2 prior steps shall be
> repeated until there are [5] remaining candidates in the district who
> shall be elected. (e) A lottery shall be held if tie votes occur in any
> step. (f) Each member of a legislative body (or his or her replacement)
> shall have a voting power in the legislative body and its committees, in
> person or by written proxy, equal to the votes that the member finally
> receives in the Election. (g) Example-
> C = Candidates          Voting Power
> C1  21          = 21 +   1   = 22
> C2  20          = 20 +   5   = 25
> C3  15          = 15 +   3   = 18
> C4  12 + 5    = 17           = 17
> C5  12 + 1    = 13 - 13   =   0
> C6  11 + 3    = 14 +   2   = 16
> C7   9  - 9     =   0          =   0
> VNT 0            =   0 +   2  =   2
>     100            100           100
>    C7 Loses   C5 Loses
> VNT= Votes not transferred
>
> Technically, the candidates should go head to head in all combinations
> of [5] versus 1 (with the other candidates being deemed losers) but the
> above lowest loses method is quite accurate enough for most citizens for
> legislative body elections.
>
> I would prefer having at least 5 legislators per district to avoid overly
> powerful majority parties (as if there were only 2 legislators per
> district).
>
> The fixation that each legislator must have 1 vote in a legislative body
> (no matter how many votes he/she gets in being elected or how many votes
> in his/her district) is dangerously obsolete.  A legislator is the
> representative (proxy) agent of the voters who voted for him/her.  Vote
> totals can be done using any type of simple totalling device (as used on
> all sorts of TV game shows).

Markus Schulze