[EM] Cheering for simplicity/Orphan

[James Green-Armytage]

James Green-Armytage, responding to John Hodges

>SO: I am wondering what effects you would get if you applied the 
>orphan method's elimination rule to multiseat STV? How would the 
>results compare with "Sequential STV" or "CPO-STV", both of which are 
>complex and computer-dependent?  If the orphan method significantly 
>improves the performance of IRV, would it similarly reduce the 
>complaints here against STV?

My off the cuff guess is that it would meet some of the same problems as
the Condorcet loser elimination STV method that was discussed earlier this
month and the end of last month.

>Methods that 
>could practically be done with paper ballots counted by hand, with 
>all calculations done by hand with pencil and paper by High-School 
>graduates, are in a WHOLE DIFFERENT CLASS than methods requiring 
>computers.
 

True, but if we can get some really good and accessible shareware voting
programs out to people, methods that require computers will not be
impossibly hard for people to use.


As a general response, I think that it is good to have knowledge of both
systems that are very simple and basic as well as the more advanced
systems (and some in between), so that an advocate can meet the voting
needs of different kinds of groups: the ones that can or can't handle the
complicated / subtle ones, or the ones or are or aren't interested in
them, etc.


James