[EM] 06/18/02 - Has the EM list gone belly-up?

[Donald E Davison]

06/18/02 - Has the EM list gone belly-up?


On this day, I sent a post to the EM list and I received the following:

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<election-methods-list at eskimo.com>
    (reason: 551 unresolvable relay host name [64.79.64.128]; check your
reverse-IP configuration.)

Donald,

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06/19/02

On this day, I received a number of posts from the EM list, so maybe it has
not gone `belly-up', maybe I am merely on the wrong side of a filter.

I'll try to send the post a second time.

Donald,

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06/18/02 - Let's `Sort-Out' the Candidates:

Dave Ketchum, you wrote:
"Your best choice almost certainly is to have a chairperson (as defined in
Robert's Rules of Order (RROO)) rather than let one person be a dictator
(even if Mislabeled as supposedly being a chairperson)."

One of the problems with Robert's Rules of Order is that they are designed
to handle only one issue at a time.  A subscription email list can handle
many issues at the same time without any one issue blocking action on the
other issues.

Another problem with RRO and/or usual meetings is that the members are
regarded as a captive audience to a certain extent.  It is as if we are to
endure others' boring speeches so that they will endure our boring speech.
If we prove we can also make boring speeches then we are accepted.

Saari wrote: `The current methods are stifling to the various members who
have good ideas but can't bring them to a vote.'
   Can't you see Dave, that current methods have a choke point through
which all proposals, discussions, and votes must flow.  This is how the
chair can control.  Not everything is able to get pass the choke point,
there is not enough time nor capacity.  It is proper for Saari to seek
something better.

Dave: "NEED to consider possibility that some "members" may never get
around to vote - what does this do to 2/3?"

Donald: It does nothing to the Two-Thirds requirement.  Forty is two-thirds
of sixty, if some do not vote, forty is still the requirement.

Donald: >   * Anytime a candidate receives fifty-plus-one before the
deadline, that candidate is elected, the election is over.

Dave: "Counting current votes, or total membership?"

Donald:  The answer is `total membership', because I am writing as if the
group has some relationship that is homogeneous, such as equal investors in
a new company or members of a legislative body.

Dave: "Plurality should be adequate for this type election."

Donald:  Plurality is only adequate for one or two candidates.  Plurality
is not adequate for three or more candidates.  We are trying to get beyond
plurality.  My example was about three or more candidates.

My solution for two tied leading candidates out of three or more candidates
can also be used as a solution for when we seek a majority winner and as a
standard to compare single winner methods.

Dave: "In case of a true tie, voters have said they care not which one of
those tied, so anything without its own bias, such as publicly flipping a
coin, should be adequate."

Donald:  A coin toss is not acceptable because its result was not created
by the `bias' of the voters.





Regards,
   Donald Davison, host of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald
                        Candidate Election Methods
   +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
   |                        Q U O T A T I O N                          |
   |  "Democracy is a beautiful thing,                                 |
   |        except that part about letting just any old yokel vote."   |
   |                           - Age 10 -                              |
   +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    APV   Approval Voting
    ATV   Alternative Vote  aka  IRV Instant Runoff Voting  aka  IRVing
    FPTP  First Past The Post  aka  Plurality
    NOTA  None of the Above  aka  RON Re-Open Nominations
    STV   Single Transferable Vote  aka  Choice Voting  aka  Hare-Clark
          aka  Preference Voting  aka  Hare Preferential Voting

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