[EM] British Colombia considering change to STV

[Kathy Dopp]

STV has *all* the same flaws as IRV but is even worse.

It is unimaginable how anyone could support any method for counting
votes that is so fundamentally unfair in its treatment of ballots and
produces such undesirable results.

STV is nonmonotonic, counts the 2nd and 3rd choices only of some
voters in a timely fashion when it could help those choices win, does
not even count any of the 2nd or 3rd choices of a large group of
voters whose first choice loses, excludes some voters from the final
counting rounds, and is in all ways the worst imaginable voting system
that I've ever heard anyone propose.

STV is particularly bad because it takes votes away from some voters
who used to be able to cast votes for one candidate for each at-large
seat while it counts a variable number of rank choices of other voters
- some who get to vote for as many candidates as there are seats to
fill, some who do not.

Guys, how on earth can anyone who claims to support the principle of
fair and equitable treatment try to turn voting into such a patently
unfair gambling game instead where the winners may be opposed by a
majority of voters.

It truly shocks me that anyone could support such an insanely unfair,
inequitable, and undesirable method for counting votes.

Kathy

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 5:10 PM, Terry Bouricius
<terryb at burlingtontelecom.net> wrote:
> Kathy,
>
> While there are serious disagreements on this list about the relative
> merits of various single-winner voting methods, I think you will find that
> most people who have studied the STV form of proportional representation
> agree that it is a very fair and very good method, and arguably the best
> in use anywhere today. I can't imagine any thoughtful reformer wanting to
> throw a monkey wrench into one of the most promising election reform
> movements in the world today. Go BC-STV!
>
> Terry Bouricius
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kathy Dopp" <kathy.dopp at gmail.com>
> To: <election-methods at lists.electorama.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 5:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [EM] British Colombia considering change to STV
>
>
>> 1. British Colombia considering change to STV (Graham Bignell)
>
> It wasn't hard to find a site campaigning against it:
>
> http://www.nostv.org/count.html
>
> People might also want to warn the BC government about the ugly mess
> that they would get themselves into by adopting such a fundamentally
> unfair, inequitable, complex and costly method for counting rank
> choice votes.  The web page to contact the BC government is:
>
> http://www.gov.bc.ca/referendum_info/contact/
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
>
>



-- 

Kathy Dopp

The material expressed herein is the informed  product of the author's
fact-finding and investigative efforts. Dopp is a Mathematician,
Expert in election audit mathematics and procedures; in exit poll
discrepancy analysis; and can be reached at

P.O. Box 680192
Park City, UT 84068
phone 435-658-4657

http://utahcountvotes.org
http://electionmathematics.org
http://kathydopp.com/serendipity/

Post-Election Vote Count Audit
A Short Legislative & Administrative Proposal
http://electionmathematics.org//ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/Vote-Count-Audit-Bill-2009.pdf

History of Confidence Election Auditing Development & Overview of
Election Auditing Fundamentals
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/History-of-Election-Auditing-Development.pdf

Voters Have Reason to Worry
http://utahcountvotes.org/UT/UtahCountVotes-ThadHall-Response.pdf