[EM] Cumulative Voting w/ elimination

[Tom Round]

Hello agin, Bart. Sounds like one could call this "Cumulative Approval
Elimination" voting ...

I haven't heard of this particular form being used, but you're right, it
would reduce still further some of the defects of simple Cumulative Voting
relative to STV. (NB. My earlier post may have been misleading. Peoria city
council simply uses the system without elimination -- ie, vote for up to S
candidates, each gets an equal fraction of your vote.)

If a jurisdiction simply adopted the rule that the lowest candidate is
eliminated, and each ballot's vote points then re-allocated accordingly
(ie, divided equally among all remaining candidates voted-for), it would
also function pretty much like Approval Voting for a single seat.

I'd tentatively advocate a further rule that, if a ballot contains votes
for more candidates than S (= the number of seats), each still receives 1/S
of a vote. That makes it simpler for voters (they don't have to worry about
"losing" candidates to elimination if they spread their votes TOO widely,
eg across a multi-party coalition), and for vote-counters (since it limits
the possible numbers of fractions of a vote that each candidate may recieve).

This method would give voters a limited power to discriminate among
candidates of their own party -- ie, if they particularly liked one/ some
or detested others they could vote for less than the full party ticket.
This would however cost their party a seat if the final race was between a
candidate not-voted-for and a candidate from a rival party.

Regards,
Tom

PS. Pronunciation is not all that relevant in cyberspace, but I am curious
... Is your surname pronounced Ing-ells or Ing-glayss (ie, Spanish style)?


At 10:46 AM 9/2/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Anyone ever hear of Cumulative Voting w/ elimination?  Seems like it
>would solve the problem of a faction losing representation because it
>diluted its vote among too many candidates.  Proportionality wouldn't be
>as accurate as STV, of course, but better than Cumulative Voting alone.
>
>Using the Peoria form of Cumulative Voting (if that's the correct name),
>it could be done on regular "X" voting equipment.  Might be suitable for
>city council-type elections, or small 2- and 3 seat districts.
>

=============================================================
Tom Round
BA (Hons), LL.B (UQ)
Research Associate -- Key Centre for Ethics, 
	Law, Justice and Governance (KCELJAG)
(incorporating the National Institute for Law, Ethics and Public Affairs)
HUM[anities] Building, Room 1.10, Nathan Campus
Griffith University, Queensland [Australia] 4111
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E-mail: 	T.Round at mailbox.gu.edu.au
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	http://www.gu.edu.au/school/ccj/
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