[EM] Single winner elections - Ballot types

[Tom Ruen]

On the Wikipedia election method pages, I've added ballot images to Wikipedia for three types of voting:

1. One vote - 2 ballot formats
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Past_the_Post_electoral_system#Ballot_types
    IMAGES
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Onevoteballotname.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Onevoteballotmark.gif
2. Approval vote - 4 ballot formats
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting#Ballot_types
    IMAGES:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Approvalballotname.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Approvalballotword.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Approvalballotmark.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Approvalballotchoice.gif
3. Rank vote - 4 ballot formats
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_voting
    IMAGES:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rankballotoval.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rankballotnumber2.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rankballotname2.gif
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rankballottouch.gif

The images are not overly beautiful, but I tried to be consistent, and they are reasonable starting points to consider variations that might be used. (Mainly better "instructions" at the top.)

The Rank ballots include a "Touch screen" format which would be a dynamic display that would confirm each vote. A "touch screen" ballot for each ballot type could be drawn as well. It is difficult to really demonstrate a dynamic display ballot clearly in a single image.

Another category of ballots could be added for Cardinal Ratings, example 10 point scale, considering thee forms - hand-written names, hand-written scores, marked column-rating scores.

Cardinal Ratings also optionally could have an (N-1) column format, with an implicit "zero" score if a candidate is unmarked, just like Approval can have an implicit "No/zero" score for an unmarked candidate, ALTHOUGH I think it would be a rather bad idea since voters wouldn't necessarily recognize this option even if it was clearly stated in the instructions.

Hopefully my ballot designs offered won't be controversial, although I'm sure they deserve more care than I made for best clarity.

Maybe this is a really trivial exercise, unworthy of discussion?

Of course, in part, I'm offering them in regard to my assertion that there are three main categories of ballots "one vote", "rankings vote", and "ratings vote", with approval as a special case of ratings.

I also think Condorcet election ballots deserve consideration also for a pairwise preference ballot, even if rather cumbersome with over 4 candidates. Condorcet can easily use a "ranking" ballot for counting, and voters shouldn't be allowed to offer cyclic preferences possible in a pairwise preference ballot. However giving voters the chance to offer illogical preferences allows an extra "consistency check" to prevent voters from misranking because they were voting too quickly.

Tom Ruen
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