[EM] Intro to list (etc)

[Paul Kislanko]

I thought of another complication when it comes to trying to display
intermediate results. It the method is Condorcet, there is in general no way
to order the results until all votes are counted - even a ballot with the
weakest candidate ranked first could contribute the margins required to
calculate a Ranked Pairs or Beatpath winner. For the ezboard application, I
would strongly consider just listing the number of first place votes in the
intermediate results. If there turns out to be a majority winner, nobody
will likely ask how the final ranking was determined. When the voting is
closed, the final results could be displayed as shown in Rob Lamphier's
examples below.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Lanphier <robla at robla.net>
To: Rob Brown <rob at hypermatch.com>
Cc: Election-Methods-List <election-methods at electorama.com>
Date: Monday, October 27, 2003 2:56 AM
Subject: Re: [EM] Intro to list (etc)


Rob Brown wrote:

> So has anyone tried showing bar graphs or numerical scores for
> Condorcet elections?  I suspect that if this is completely impossible
> to show something reasonable, I won't have much luck selling a
> condorcet based system to a mainstream web audience....people really
> seem to want to see something to help them understand the results.  On
> the other hand, my gut feeling is that there MUST be some way to have
> Condorcet results equate to numerical values.

Hi Rob,

Your demo looks wonderful.  Regarding display of results, it's a very
difficult problem.  It's hard to come up with something that is both
intuitive and correct.  That said, I thought the Free State Project did
an interesting summary of their results:

1. New Hampshire defeated all states and Wyoming 1279-­1041
2. Wyoming defeated all states except New Hampshire, and defeated
Montana 1196-­954
3. Montana defeated all states except Wyoming and New Hampshire, and
defeated Idaho 1152-­979
4. Idaho lost to the above and defeated Alaska 1269-950
5. Alaska lost to the above and defeated Maine 1127-1097
6. Maine lost to the above and defeated Vermont 1108-996
7. Vermont lost to the above and defeated Delaware 1087-­1015
8. Delaware lost to the above and defeated South Dakota 1245-­938
9. South Dakota lost to the above and defeated North Dakota 1101-­823
10. North Dakota lost to all states

The ranking is clear, and the important margins are called out.  This
was a relatively simple election though, since there were no circular
ties anywhere down the ranking.  However, I imagine that could be dealt
with.  For example, let's say that Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho had a
three way tie that would be broken by one of the many methods discussed
on this list:

1. New Hampshire defeated all states and Wyoming 1279-­1041
2 through 4. (three way tie) The following defeated all states except
New Hampshire
  2. Wyoming - defeated Montana 1196-­954, but lost to Idaho
  3. Montana - defeated Idaho 1152-979, but lost to Wyoming
  4. Idaho - defeated Wyoming 1020-989, but lost to Montana
5. Alaska lost to the above and defeated Maine 1127-1097
6. Maine lost to the above and defeated Vermont 1108-996
7. Vermont lost to the above and defeated Delaware 1087-­1015
8. Delaware lost to the above and defeated South Dakota 1245-­938
9. South Dakota lost to the above and defeated North Dakota 1101-­823
10. North Dakota lost to all states

A more succinct way of reporting the results would be as follows (using
original results):

State
W
L
Notable victories
New Hampshire
9
0
defeated Wyoming 1279-1041
Wyoming
8
1
defeated Montana 1196-954
Montana
7
2
defeated Idaho 1152-­97
Idaho
6
3
defeated Alaska 1269-950
Alaska
5
4
defeated Maine 1127-1097
Maine
4
5
defeated Vermont 1108-996
Vermont
3
6
defeated Delaware 1087-­101
Delaware
2
7
defeated South Dakota 1245-­938
South Dakota
1
8
defeated North Dakota 1101-­823
North Dakota
0
9
lost to all states


For those that follow sports, this would be a comfortable and familiar
format, and one that conveys a lot of important info without completely
overwhelming the voter with too much information.

Rob


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