[EM] Question on RCV/IRV multi-seat method used in Minneapolis

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 05:33 PM 9/24/2008, Raph Frank wrote:

>A Hare election with 10 seats will end up being a Droop election with
>9 seats, except for a 1 in a million chance that all the votes are
>assigned under Hare and thus all 10 seats are filled.

If you use Droop quota, simple: an extra seat is allowed should 
everyone get it together. If we go as far as the direct-elector 
democracy idea, each seat is by default exercising the quota of 
votes, whatever it was. Electors who are holding votes at the end 
could still vote directly.

A critical realization in my own process was in realizing that we 
left direct democracy behind as impractical because of the difficulty 
of *deliberation*, not because of the difficulty of *voting.* I think 
of a "seat" as being allowed representation in deliberation. And 
might as well allow them to vote as well, and to exercise the default 
votes that elected them, as long as electors don't choose to vote 
directly. Thus we gain the efficiency of representative democracy, 
the protection of secret ballot for most voters, and the democratic 
ideal of allowed participation, without thereby incurring participation bias.