[EM] 2-step CR: A proposal

[Olli Salmi]

>Counting procedure:
>
>1) Count the first place votes.  If any candidate has a majority, the
>candidate with the most votes is the winner.
>
>2) If no candidate has a majority, then count the first and second place
>votes for each candidate.  If any candidate has a majority, the candidate
>with the most votes is the winner.
>
>3)  Repeat 2) until a winner is declared or all votes have been counted.  If
>all votes are counted, the candidate with the most votes wins (or
>alternatively, have some other election a-la Demorep).
>
>In the end, this system plays out a lot like Approval voting, only the
>multiple levels give the voters a chance to hedge their bets a bit in a
>close multi-candidate race.

This bears some resemblance to the way Norwegians determine the order of
the candidates elected from a list.

http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19850301-003-013.html#52

My somewhat clumsy translation of the relevant part of § 52:

When it has been decided how many representatives each list shall have, a
new count will be done for the candidates of the list. It is done like this:

First only those names are counted that stand first on the ballot papers.
The candidate with most votes is elected. If the list shall have more than
one representative, the votes on the 2nd place will be counted. The
candidate with most votes on the two counts is elected, not counting the
candidates that have already been elected. The count proceeds in the same
manner until all the seats that the party gets are filled. The names of
ineligible persons are disregarded and the following candidate is elected
instead. If more than one candidate have the same number of votes, the
order on the party list is followed.

Here's a ballot paper:
http://www.buskerud-f.kommune.no/annet/valg_2001/stemmeforklaring.htm
You can strike out a name with a cross or rearrange the names with a
number. Ballots are printed for every party and the voter gets all of them.

There's a note at the bottom:
To change the  order of the candidates on the list it is necessary that the
same change with the same candidate name is done by more than a half of the
voters that have voted for the list.

A similar method was used earlier in the nomination of candidates for the
position of the chancellor of the University of Helsinki. The president
appointed one of the three top candidates. I'm trusting my memory here
because the law was changed, apparently in 1964, and I couldn't find
statute books from the sixties.

Olli Salmi


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