[EM] Methods, and the criteria they satisfy

[Diana Galletly]

On Fri, 19 Sep 2003, Alex Small wrote:

> In your original post yesterday I believe you said you were intereted in
> referenda.  In the US, referenda usually refer to yes/no questions on a
> proposed law.  Are there multi-option referenda in the UK, or do you mean
> something else?

Cambridge University is somewhat ... special.  Matters are proposed,
amendments are suggested, and an IRV ballot is conducted between them
(at the moment; revision is strongly on the cards after what I've pointed
out over the past few months!)

> If you're looking for a real-world single-winner election with 10
> candidates and ranked ballots, a private group in the US is in the process
> of conducting one right now.  A group of libertarian activists have
> decided that, since a 3rd party can't win easily in a place that uses
> plurality voting and single member districts, they'll concentrate all of
> their efforts on a single small state.  Their goal is to move 20,000
> activists to that one state.  I'm not involved (and I don't plan to get
> involved), but I have a friend who is.

That could well be interesting as well.  But if I can get the raw data from
these rather close-run IRV `referenda+' (which seems very much more likely
now than I thought would be possible -- the mention of research seems to
have done the trick) I think there might be some fascinating results.  As
I said, real world data is the vital thing, though, so any data is useful.
I'm fed up of being accused of coming up with contrived examples!

Diana.