[Election-Methods] A Better Version of IRV?

[Juho]

On Jul 17, 2008, at 20:10 , fsimmons at pcc.edu wrote:

> Chris:
> Truncation should be allowed, so no-one has to "fill out  rankings"  
> if they
> don't want to.
>
> Total agreement there.
>
> My suggestion is to try to adapt an idea from information theory:   
> when
> designing a system for conveying information efficiently, give the  
> shortest code
> words to the most likely messages.
>
> Perhaps some EM aficionado can surprise us with an ingenious idea  
> along these
> lines.

To me this sounds almost like a proof the the tree structure is the  
superior method :-). I mean that the shortest codes can be said to be  
single candidates. The most likely message is to support also the  
group that this candidate belongs to, and then the party, and then  
the alliance of parties.

This is a bit simplified model in the sense that the voter can not  
say (using the shortest code words) which candidate of the group is  
the second best etc. But it is easy to allow also that. One just has  
to use longer code words, e.g. Candidate1>Candidate2. The default  
completion of the vote could be e.g. to follow the position of the  
last listed candidate in the tree =>  
Candidate1>Candidate2>Group2>Party2>Alliance2. If Candidate1 would be  
from a different party (and group) than Candidate2 but the voter  
would like to follow the tree structure starting from Candidate1 then  
he/she could use again a slightly longer code word  
Candidate1>Candidate2>Group1 (also groups may have identities) and  
that would be completed based of Group1's location in the tree.

Maybe it is also possible to cast a truncated vote =>  
Candidate1>Candidate2>Group1>Nobody. Probably not a very common need.

(Candidate determined inheritance order would give the same code word  
length (maybe even slightly shorter in some cases) but would be more  
complex for the voters to understand (and could lead to use of  
malicious inheritance orders).)

I'll skip the counting process for a moment :-).

Juho





	
	
		
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