[EM] average voting power and block votes

[Forest Simmons]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Richard Moore wrote (in part):

<big snip>

> In this case, we see that with the block voting 
> arrangement the voters are giving up some of their power to 
> an arbitrary factor. This arbitrariness can easily be seen 
> this way: Suppose the vote is held before the blocks are 
> designated, and the result is 5 to 4. Now divide the voters 
> into blocks by lottery. Every now and then you will get a 
> distribution like 3-0, 1-2, 1-2, which gives a result that 
> contradicts the popular vote. So some voting power is 
> surrendered to randomness, and (statistically) no voter 
> gained any power as a result of that sacrifice.
> 
> Richard
> 

That's a clever way of looking at it.


Forest