[EM] PR in student government

[Juho]

On Apr 17, 2007, at 21:28 , Howard Swerdfeger wrote:

> Again, I recommend a Regional Open List System.
> It would be my second choice (behind STV) in therms of results  
> given the
> requirements you mentioned.
> But it would be my first choice if one was to give more weight to
> simplicity of counting and simplicity for the voter.

I agree. For me the three very basic (vanilla flavour) multi-winner  
methods are:
- STV => if one wants to avoid parties; expressive votes; computer  
based calculation for fractional votes
- open lists => if parties and/or groups are used; simple manual  
calculation
- single member districts => does not provide full PR; clear links  
between representatives and citizens of the region

There are many mixes and variants of these but I think these three  
basic methods already pretty well stretch the space.

> Ballot Would look something like this
>
> ---
> Voting Instructions:
> 1. You only have ONE vote.
> 2. Place an X in the box NEXT to your candidate of choice.
> 3. Your vote counts both for your candidate and your party.
>
> Party A	          Party B       Party C      Independent
> ________________________________________________________
> [ ]Candidate1  [ ]Candidate1 [ ]Candidate1 [ ]Candidate1
> [ ]Candidate2  [ ]Candidate2 [X]Candidate2
> [ ]Candidate3  [ ]Candidate3 [ ]Candidate3
> ---

One very simple alternative is to just write the number of one's  
favourite candidate in a blank ballot paper. The numbers of the  
candidates are advertised elsewhere.

> Seats would be allocated proportionally by party.
> But the member of the party that gets each seat would be determined by
> the number of votes the received.

This basic version works reasonably well. The candidate election  
process within parties (plurality like) could however be improved (if  
wanted) (e.g. by making the group structure more detailed).

Juho



		
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