[EM] working paper on delegable proxy voting

[Paul Kislanko]

 Abd ul-Rahman Lomax quoted:
At 12:01 AM 11/14/2005, James Green-Armytage wrote:
>. Issue independence: Even when there are multiple issues on the same
>ballot, I should have the option of indicating separate proxies for
>separate issues, while still voting directly on other issues, if I choose.

This would appear to be nirvana, but I can't see any practical "method" for
implementing it. How does one "vote if I chose" on an "issue?" It has been
well-documented that that pollsters get different results on the same issue
depending upon how they phrase the yes/no question.

I don't see how having multiple delagable proxies can do anything but make
an already-intractable problem more complex. If I delegate to A for issues
{a,c,e} and to B for {b,d} and I vote on issues {f,g} can we count anything
except which issue gets the most support?

I talked offlist awhile back with Dave Gamble about Isaac Asimov's 1950s-era
short story "Franchise", in which a a single "best fits the profile" voter
is selected as a proxy for all voters, and his opinions on all the issues
(with control questions on non-issues) uniquely determined the winners of
all elections. Cool story.

Subsequent to that, I suggested that it might actually be possible to hold
an election where each voter anonymously provided input regarding every
issue, and separately each candidate filled out the same ballot. A
multivariate correlation of voters' responses to candidate's responses would
select the "right" candidate. 

Also science fiction/fantasy, I think, because of the problems involved in
formulating the issues.