[EM] Geographical districts

[Juho]

On Sep 5, 2008, at 2:13 , Raph Frank wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 10:13 PM, Juho <juho4880 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> One simple approach would be to ask the voters directly about the
>> (physical/mental) distances. The answers could be of e.g.
>> Village1>Village2>Village3>... There could be more villages on the
>> questionnaire than there will be districts.
>
> I suggested something similar a while back.  Basically, you assume
> that each resident ranks all the residents in order of distance.
>
> You then hold a PR-STV election with 'seats' equal to the number of  
> districts.
>
> The winners then become the centres of the districts.
>
> Ofc, under that system, the voters don't actually get to vote.
>
> If voters were going to vote, maybe they could have less accuracy as
> they go further away (e.g. the nearest 5 villages appear but
> eventually it is only towns, then only cities).  Also, it would be a
> nightmare to count without computers.

My plan was that the voters would actually vote, and not only to  
indicate physical distances but also other preferences. That would  
mean that village that is near but on the other side of the river  
(and without a bridge) would not be ranked high. There would be  
probably good correlation with driving time but there are also many  
other factors. Maybe one favours the direction where one works, where  
one's relatives live, where people speak the same language or have  
the same religion, historically associated areas, areas with similar  
needs, areas with similar minded people etc.

Use of computers in the vote counting phase should nowadays be ok.

Juho





		
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