[EM] Suggested name for Range Voting: Free Voting

[Anthony O'Neal]

Range voting's name has always sounded slightly of metallic and bland to
me.  So I propose that we call it the "free vote" instead, simply because it
is probably the least restrictive voting system yet proposed.  It doesn't
force any rules on people except that they must give points within a
specific boundary.  The name "free voting" points to the systems main
benefit - that it provides so much freedom with votes.  Anyone who doesn't
like range can simply give their favorite candidate a 10 and ignore all the
other choices - hey, it's your choice, why force plurality on the rest of
us.  It also just rings more nicely in the ears than 'range voting'.

And about the proportional range system I talked about earlier, the workings
of the system is obvious.  Under PAV rules, you assume that candidates give
1 point to an outcome for having one approved of candidate, 1/3 for the
second approved of candidate, 1/5 for the third, and so on, and so on.

Proportional range voting is simialar, except that it must occur in sets
(where the sets are the amount of points that may be given to each candidate
in the system).  You add up the points 1 at a time, and whenever adding
another point completes a set, reduce the value of the next points the
person has given out by V / M * 2 + 1.

So, here's an example of a rating that would be given to an outcome.

This is an election for two seats, with four candidates.

Range is 1-100

voters ballot:  A: 25, B: 125, C: 1, D: 75

Comparing this against outcome A, B:

The voter gave out 125 points for A and B combined

So the first 100 points count full strength for this outcome, and the next
25 count 25/ 3, or 8.333...

So the voter gives out 108.3333 points to this outcome.




Now, continue this process for all outcomes, then for all other voters, sum
the amount of points each voter gave to each outcome, and the outcome with
the most points wins.
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