[EM] Robert Winters quotation on Droop

[Markus Schulze]

Dear Donald,

I couldn't find that quotation of Robert Winters that you were
mentioning in one of your last mails. Could you -please- tell me
where to find Rob Winters' quotation? I have only found the
following quotations:

Robert Winters wrote (5 Sep 1998):
> Let's not overstate the negatives of Droop vs. Hare in such absolute
> terms. Cambridge uses the Droop Quota in electing 9 councillors. In 1991,
> over 80% of voters had their top choice elected, about 95% had their
> first or second choice elected, and about 97% had one of their top three
> choices elected. I have not done the calculations on the 1997 election
> data but I'm sure the percentages are even higher. It's not fair to make
> the blanket statement that "10% of the votes were wasted."
>
> Your assertion that "only candidates of the top three parties are to be
> elected" shows at least some misunderstanding of STV. The beauty of STV
> is that that every individual voter may choose his own criteria for
> selecting and ranking candidates. I can assure you that the Cambridge
> experience is not primarily one of proportional representation of
> parties. Socioeconomic classes and race are generally proportionately
> represented, but there are no guarantees at all. In fact, I feel pretty
> strongly that "proportional representation" is a misnomer when describing
> STV. What is generally produced by a PR-STV election is an adequate
> representation of the diversity of a given community according to a broad
> range of criteria. You should move away from your focus on political
> parties if you are to fully understand how STV works in practice.

Robert Winters wrote (6 Sep 1998):
> I can't say that I agree with your contention that "1687 voters (~10%)
> failed to elect a candidate." I just did some number crunching on the 1997
> Cambridge City Council data:
> 88.73% of all voters had their 1st choice elected.
> 96.15% of all voters had either their 1st or 2nd choice elected.
> 97.59% of all voters had either their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice elected.
>
> In the 1991 City Council election:
> 81.36% of all voters had their 1st choice elected.
> 94.58% of all voters had either their 1st or 2nd choice elected.
> 97.00% of all voters had either their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice elected.
>
> Since I would say that being one of the top three choices constitutes a
> strong measure of voter approval, I'd say that the "wastage" is at most 3%
> of ballots. The potential problems with the Droop Quota concern the degree
> of proportionality and problems associated with the filling of vacancies.
> The interpretation that it means that 10% of voters don't get their choices
> counted is misleading.

Robert Winters wrote (28 Nov 1998):
> I propose that Mike Ossipoff and Donald Davison compete in a nude mud
> wrestling tournament. It would be a lot more interesting than the
> back-and-forth blather about Approval, Condorcet, what constitutes a
> majority, etcetera, ad nauseum.

Markus Schulze