[EM] divided house problem of close vote (50%+1)

[Juho]

On Mar 15, 2007, at 13:52 , Howard Swerdfeger wrote:

>> Note that it is possible that the sum of Mars and Venus votes  
>> need  not
>> be 100%. It is possible for example to have a faction that is   
>> eager to
>> send a rocket to any planet. As a result both planets may  get !50%
>> results. In this case I don't know what happens if both  planets  
>> reach
>> the super majority limit at the same round.
>
> I don't see how this is possible?
> could you give me an example?

There are three groups of voters:
- 42% wants to send the rocket to Mars
- 42% wants to send the rocket to Venus
- 16% wants to send the rocket as soon as possible anywhere

There are two independent votes on sending the rocket to Mars and  
sending the rocket to Venus.

First round:
- to Mars: 58% Yes, 42% no
- to Venus: 58% Yes, 42% no

Second round:
- to Mars: 58% Yes, 42% no => threshold will be met
- to Venus: 58% Yes, 42% no => threshold will be met

Shall we send the rocket to Mars or Venus?

>> I think there could be also electronic election methods where results
>> are calculated in real-time and voters may change their vote when   
>> they
>> see what the current results are. The behaviour of a method in  this
>> situation could be also used as one criterion to evaluate the   
>> stability
>> of the method. This kind of situations could make also the  Nash
>> equilibrium of strategic voting states more meaningful (I have   
>> earlier
>> criticized them as not being a good measure for typical ("non   
>> real-time
>> feedback") elections).
>
> interesting, would your real time elections have some form of  
> "leak" to
> them?

That is possible. The leak could be arranged in many ways, e.g. so  
that votes older than x are no more valid.

> or would the persons vote stand until they changed it.

That is also possible.

> this a very interesting read on Proxy democracy that might be  
> similar to
> what you are thinking.
>   * http://fc.antioch.edu/~james_green-armytage/vm/proxy.htm

Maybe the characteristic feature of what I proposed is the ability to  
change one's vote in real-time. The method could be cumulative like  
in your proposal but also non-cumulative methods can be used. I can  
imagine e.g. a parliament where the elected candidates will stay only  
as long as their support stays above certain threshold value. I note  
however that arranging elections only after x years may be  
intentional - to guarantee a peaceful working environment and to make  
some distance between "unpopular but necessary decisions" and next  
elections.

As you can see I didn't have any particular well defined method in my  
mind - just proposing possible directions where your ideas could lead  
to.

Juho



		
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