[EM] 06/21/02 - `Majority' is not a valid word on the EM list:

[Dave Ketchum]

On Fri, 21 Jun 2002 06:10:25 -0400 Donald E Davison wrote:

> 06/21/02 - `Majority' is not a valid word on the EM list:
> 
> Dave K wrote:  "...failure to recognize "majority" as a valid English word
> puzzles me whenever I see it."
> 
> Dear Dave,
> 
>     Best not to use the word `majority' on this EM list, the word has been
> corrupted.
> 
>     Some of the election methods discussed on this list use more votes
> and/or choices in their calculations than there are voters.  It is
> possible, in the minds of some, for two or more candidates to have, what is
> loosely termed, `a majority'.


Thanks, I was thinking of a simpler world, where I see the "plus 1" phrase 
as a corruption.  There, given 51 votes, that is barely:
      A majority of 100 or 101 total votes.
      1/2 plus 1 for 99 or 100 total votes.

It was the same simpler world last month when, if representing 543 voters, 
my aye or no would have counted 543 toward a total of perhaps 500,000.

Before studying further, my initial thought is that the two expressions 
have to retain the difference indicated above.  Also, for either, you 
start with total votes (cast or possible - this must be specified) but 
care not how many voters that took.

Qualify that a bit - when words or phrases get corrupted, we have to 
adjust as best we can.

> 
>     In other words, when two or more candidates each have a number of votes
> that is equal in number to what would be a majority of the voters, some
> members on this list consider that to be `a majority' for each candidate.
> 
>     I do not hold their belief.  My position is that in those methods, a
> majority of the voters is not the same as a majority of the votes.
> Besides, it is mathematically impossible for a method to produce a true
> majority of the votes for any candidate when the votes are twice the number
> of voters.
>     The exception would be Cumulative Voting for single seat.
> 
>     Only on this EM list does the word `majority' need a translation when
> it is used.
> 
>     Tell us Dave, what is your translation of the word `majority' in the
> context of an election?   Is `majority' a number greater than one half?
> If so, would that be one half of the voters or one half of the votes and/or
> choices?
> 
>     Suppose an Approval Voting election with 100 voters, and the results are:
>     Candidate A 56 votes,  Candidate B 54 votes,  Candidate C 51 votes
> 
>     Would you say that each of these three candidates has `a majority'?
> 
>     I suppose if one were to loose their senses one could accept that there
> are three majority candidates.  Some do claim that all three candidates
> have `a majority'.


I would agree that each has a majority of the possible votes for a single 
candidate, that each has 1/2 plus 1 of that limit, and that it matters 
little since, this being Approval voting, having a majority does not make 
B a winner.

> 
>     Supporters of Approval Voting will use the code-words `true majority
> candidate'.  Which implies that the Approval Voting method is to be the
> standard by which all single-seat methods are to be judged and that the
> `true majority candidate' of any election would be the Approval candidate.
> It follows that the actual `true majority  candidate' would be, can be,
> revealed by working the election data according to the rules of Approval
> Voting.
>     I find all this to be a corruption of logic.
> 
> 
>     Anyway, I find it best to stay away from the word `majority' as much as
> possible, less someone misinterperts what I am saying.  Talk of `a
> majority' and the `true majority candidate' is merely so much gobbledygook.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
>    Donald Davison, host of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald

-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    http://www.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
   Dave Ketchum    108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708    607-687-5026
              Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                    If you want peace, work for justice.

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