[EM] IRV-like Virtual districts

[raphfrk at netscape.net]

 Electing a 'centerist' House normally requires districts. For example, a House that was
 elected with condorcet from single seat districts would be mainly centerists.
 
 Anyway, here is the proposed method:
 
 The districts are numbered 1 to N
 
 A candidate stands 1 district.
 
 The voter ranks all (or some) of the districts and 
 indicates his vote for the ones he ranks.
 
 The quota is set at the the Hare quota.
 
 Votes are then fractionally transferred between districts like IRV. At the
 end each district will have total votes equaling 1/N of the votes cast.
 
 The winner in each district wins a seat.
 
 I can see the ballot getting pretty complex. It might require some kind
 of write in system and maybe a max number of districts you can indicate
 a vote for.
 
 For example, a voter could vote (assume Approval used)
 
 1) District 7, Approve A,B
 2) District 3, Approve F
 3) District 1, Approve H,I,K
 
 200% of a quota's worth of voters vote district 7 as first choice.
 
 This means that only 50% of the voter's vote is consumed for voting in
 district 7.
 
 The vote might end up being
 
 50%: Approve A,B
 45%: Approve F
 5%: Approve H, I, K
 
 The system at least assures that each district has the same number of voters.
 
 A majority would have to try to split its votes evenly throughout the 
 districts. There is no point in winning a district 99% to 1% by having all of their
 voters vote in that district.
 
 The system effectively allows people to change district at will. I wonder if
 the result would be stable or unstable (I am leaning towards unstable). There 
 would be an incentive for minorities to converge on districts that they lost 55
 to 45, causing instability. This effect would be reduced if representatives 
 actually represented their district in its entirety. Also, if representatives said 
 that they will be concentrating on a certain geographical area, this would help fix 
 districts to certain areas providing more stability.
    Raphfrk
 --------------------
 Interesting site
 "what if anyone could modify the laws"
 
 www.wikocracy.com
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