[Election-Methods] IRV hurts racial minorities?

[Juho]

Yes, this article didn't increase the scientific credibility of the  
rangevoting site much :-).

 > So given this, we suggest to you that based on the data that we  
have, and until any evidence comes along to the contrary, you should  
conclude that IRV disfavors racial minorities.

Eating ice cream causes drowning. There is plenty of evidence. Just  
check the summertime and wintertime statistics and be convinced.

In this case one statistical IRV example seemed to justify the  
conclusions.


Was there a hidden conclusion that plurality would not hurt  
minorities, or would not hurt them as much as IRV?


I also didn't see any proposed theory on why IRV would hurt (racial  
or other) minorities. Is there one? (How about a single-member  
district based theory?)

- - -

More serious now.

One comment on single-member districts. I think a more typical case  
where single-member districts may be useful (when we otherwise prefer  
proportional representation of all the groupings) is the case where  
we have a minority that is too small to be represented proportionally  
(requires multiple seats) but we want to guarantee that this minority  
always gets at least one seat. In such case it may be in the interest  
of that minority (and the whole community) to elect just one  
representative that is supposed to represent all the different  
sections within that minority.

Also in this case methods that guarantee that single seat to be  
elected always but still maintain proportionality are possible. Here  
I'm thinking about methods that would force different districts to  
elect representatives so that the total sum of representatives will  
be in proportion to the received votes (and maybe also other criteria  
like regional representation, gender etc.).

In both approaches there is also the risk that the small region in  
question would be continuously represented by the largest local  
grouping. There are also ways to fix that. One could e.g. guarantee  
proportionality in time (by remembering the results of the last  
election when counting the results of the following election, or by  
splitting one single term in smaller parts). This may get complex  
though, so the basic single-member districts may in many cases be  
enough.

Juho


On Jul 29, 2008, at 2:09 , James Gilmour wrote:

> Warren Smith  > Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 10:58 PM
>> A web page analysing this topic is here
>> http://rangevoting.org/IRVraceMinorities.html
>
> Whatever the merits or demerits of any single-winner voting system  
> in respective of minority representation, if you are serious
> about representation of minorities, you start by electing the  
> representative assembly by a sound system of proportional
> representation in which all representatives are elected from multi- 
> member districts (upper limit: whole country = one electoral
> district).  Single-winner voting systems in single-member districts  
> should not be used to elect representative assemblies, except in
> the rare situation where one or two electoral districts are so  
> large and so sparsely populated that only a single-member district
> makes sense.
>
> James Gilmour
>
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