[EM] Hay Voting busted

raphfrk at netscape.net raphfrk at netscape.net
Mon Feb 5 11:17:45 PST 2007


 Peter de Blanc wrote:



> The more general criterion which Hay Voting satisfies is this: we

> want a voting method such that, given a probability distribution for how 

> the other voters will vote, the mapping from utility functions to

> optimal voting strategies is injective. In the original formulation of

> Hay Voting, this mapping does not depend on the probability

> distribution. In a deterministic (or "semi-deterministic") method, the

> mapping would have to depend on this probability distribution. In either

> case it has to be injective if we want to discover what the voters

> really want.





Presumably, it should also tend to elect the candidate with the highest total utility.  

However, it would be recognised that there is a tradeoff between accurately revealing

the utility functions and ensuring the candidate with the highest utility wins.



The issue of how to sum utility over an entire society is also raised.  How do you relate

one point of utility between two people.



It occurs to me that when taking probabilities into account, the two candidate who tie are

also relevant.  If the top 2 are both similar utility, then a voter may not want to waste

votes to separate them.



In any case, the result will only give relative utility of some kind.  All utilities could be 

multiplied by a constant and the voter would still vote the same way.



The economic solution would be to allow voters to buy additional voting weight.  However,

that would likely be resisted for philosophical reasons.

   Raphfrk
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