[EM] Proxy situation question reply

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

The question was:

Who is A's proxy in an A->B->C->A loop?

A is out of luck, if that's all the information there is.

But you suggested that voters might have also indicated a ranking of 
proxies.

Yes, I suggested two ways of doing it:

1. The voter V indicates a ranking of proxies, so that if hir 1st proxy 
doesn't vote on an issue, then
V's voting power goes to V's 2nd proxy, and so on, through V's proxy 
ranking.

2. The voter could mark a box on hir ballot to indicate that s/he wants hir 
voting power to go to wherever hir proxy's voting power goes. The voter's 
voting power is given to hir proxy, to go wherever the proxy's voting power 
goes.

Best of all would be to allow both options. If you vote a ranking of 
proxies, then you're saying where you want your voting power to go if Proxy1 
doesn't vote on the issue. So if you've designated a Proxy2, then your 
voting power shouldn't follow Proxy 1's transfer of hir voting power to 
Proxy1's proxy. Your voting power instead goes to your Proxy2.

But say you don't have a Proxy2, but have marked the box that authorizes 
your voting power to travel with Proxy1's voting power. If there's a cycle 
of proxies in which none of them list a 2nd proxy, then your voting power 
doesn't count anywhere. But if one of those proxies has listed a 2nd proxy, 
then of course that's where voting power will go when it gets to hir and 
s/he doesn't vote on the issue. As I said, a voter or proxy's ranking of 
proxies should take precedence over hir authorization for hir voting power 
to follow that of hir 1st proxy.

So I don't know that there' s a paradox. A cycle of proxies, with no 2nd 
proxies, just means that if you don't vote on an issue, then your voting 
power on that issue doesn't count in the election.

And as long as there's a clear rule that your proxy ranking takes precedence 
over your authorization for your voting power to follow that of your 1st 
proxy, I don't know if a paradoxical situaiton can be found.

The only time your voting power should follow your 1st proxy's voting power, 
to your 1st proxy's proxy, should be when either you don't have a proxy 
ranking, but have only designated one proxy; or else when no one in your 
proxy ranking has voted on the issue. Then the fact that you've marked the 
authorizing box means that your voting power follows wherever your 1st 
proxy's voting power goes.

I'm not saying that it couldn't get complicated, but I don't know if it 
would ever be paradoxical or ambiguous.

Mike Ossipoff

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself with the new version of MSN Messenger! Download today - 
it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/