[Election-Methods] Elect the Compromise

[Jobst Heitzig]

Dear Forest,

> The main thing I overlooked was vote trading.
> 
> So there are two main devices for solving the challenge: vote trading 
> and randomness.

There is a third one! One of the oldest voting methods that have been studied can also solve it at least in part. I wonder who will first see what I mean :-)

> Jobst suggested a way of combining them: asset voting with random 
> ballot as the base method, so that probabilities are traded.

Right. That could solve the problem: With Random Ballot, A and B will win with 55% and 45% probability, respectively. If Candidates A and B agree to "trade" their power by transferring their complete share of the probability to C, both factions will gain. 

There is only one problem left: If candidates are allowed to trade also parts of their power, C will not be elected with certainty since then A and B will only offer to transfer a part of their probability large enough so that the other faction will still gain somewhat (details to come).
 
> We could also combine them into a DYN version of D2MAC.
> 
> The basic ballots are DYN ballots.  Voters decide Yes/No for each 
> candidate that they feel sure about, and then Delegate the remaining 
> Y/N votes to one of the candidates, presumably their favorite.
> 
> After all of the Y/N votes have been completed by the proxies, two 
> ballots are drawn at random.  If there is a candidate that was (either 
> directly or by proxy) voted Yes on both ballots, then the common Yes 
> candidate with the greatest number of Y's (from the other voters or 
> their proxies) is elected.  Otherwise the favorite (i.e. proxy 
> candidate) of the first drawn ballot chooses the winner.
> 
> That's just an idea meant to stimulate exploration of further 
> possibilities.

A very nice idea in my view! One could even let the candidates know what the direct votes are and communicate with each other and let them sign contracts what candidates they will approve of. This would give them also some means of asset trading...

Yours, Jobst
_____________________________________________________________________
Der WEB.DE SmartSurfer hilft bis zu 70% Ihrer Onlinekosten zu sparen!
http://smartsurfer.web.de/?mc=100071&distributionid=000000000066