[EM] Introductory Message

[Doreen Dotan]

Dave Ketchum <davek at clarityconnect.com> wrote:
On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 09:48:44 -0800 (PST) Doreen Dotan wrote:

> B"H
 

 Absentee ballots get enclosed in envelopes, and 
the envelopes identify the voter - with the ballot removed before being 
counted.

Only recently has Israeli law been changed to allow diplomats and others on official gov't business outside of the country to vote from outside the country. Ordinary Israeli citizens outside Israel's borders still cannot vote by absentee ballot at all.


Tell Moshe this is a tournament (which it is - every pair of candidates 
are compared, with the candidate who wins in all of its pairs winning the 
election) (there is the case of near ties among the strongest candidates - 
a beats all except b; b beats all except c; and c beats all except a - 
this is resolvable, even with a more complex tie - what is IMPORTANT is 
that candidates in the cycle have demonstrated that candidates outside the 
cycle have, properly, lost.

The analogy of Condorcet to a tournament is a good one. Sports are popular here and anyone who can bet on a team can handle Condorcet voting.  My concern would be dishonesty in the tallying. 

Rules CAN permit indicating equal liking for multiple candidates.

To my mind order of preference indicating preferability is best, perhaps with the ability of voting for more than one person in the number one (two, three, etc.) slot.

The array that Condorcet produces shows comparative liking among ALL pairs 
of candidates, including those far from winning.

I'm starting to get convinced.


If I read the 1.5% correctly, it says a party too weak to elect two 
members should have none. Seems like a political question we should duck.

Right on both counts.

Also, I see no need to disturb the proportional representation presently 
in use. Anyone wishing to change this needs to explain the expected benefits.

The benefits are great in allowing voters to vote for more than one party in descending order of desireability for the Knesset, thus expressing their own ideas of what the Knesset should look like.  The present system of forcing the Israeli voter to vote for one and only one party for the Knesset, out of some twenty something parties running for the Knesset, and then leaving it to the  Prime Minister elect to put together a coalition in 21 days, or having failed to do so getting another 21-day-long stab at forming the coalition again or forfeiting his right to become PM, is to my mind completely unacceptable. One can only imagine the pressure exerted to make deals in the time allotted. No PM elect has ever forfeited his or her chance at the office by failing to put the coalition together - somehow.

I read of a variety of methods of creating party lists.
Demanding that all change would likely be most successful at 
inspiring enemies.
If some methods are ugly, perhaps these could be improved.

That is my purpose - getting some of the ugliness out of Israeli politics and allowing for not only greater expression of the collective will, but also more a more sanguine atmosphere surrounding the elections.  

If there are no effective strategy games - where Condorcet is supposed to 
be - this period should be short..

Yes, I see what you mean.  That would work for voting for the PM.  However, Condorcet tallying for the Knesset, involving twenty some odd parties would be a bit hairy.
> 
> Doreen

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