[EM] STV and weighted positional methods

[Raph Frank]

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Kathy Dopp <kathy.dopp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Don't know what you're trying to say.  If you mean that a spreadsheet
> won't work to automatically count STV, then that just shows how
> nontransparent the STV counting process is that an ordinary citizen
> who doesn't do computer programming and have programming tools and
> training cannot with out huge effort and time check the accuracy of
> any STV election by simply checking the tally during the canvass
> period, even if all the individual ballot choices of every voter are
> publicly published.

I think it would be possible but you would have to have to have a few
columns for each round.

However, PR-STV is a sequential system, which is harder to implement
with spreadsheets.

> BTW, I am against using any method where voters can only cast one vote
> for filling two or more at-large seats because this takes away votes
> from the voter

Are you opposed to any kind of PR system?

Party list systems are (mostly) monotonic.

> The more I've learned about STV and IRV, the more amazed I am that
> anyone would consider using such an unfair method in any election,
> especially to cast one vote for a multi-seat contest where your second
> choice may never even be counted.

The only time your 2nd choice won't be looked at is if you vote for
the last candidate to be eliminated as your first choice, i.e. if
there were 6 candidates left and 5 seats.  When one of the six is
eliminated, there is no point in transferring his votes as there are 5
candidates remaining and 5 seats.

There are some versions of PR-STV where this is not the only
situation, and I would agree that they are less fair.

In any case, in an N seat election, up to 1/(N+1) of the voters will
not have a candidate who represents them.  In a single seat district,
it is possible for up to 50% of the population to hate their
representative.  In a 5 seat constituency, at most 1/6 of the voters
would be unrepresented.

The principle behind PR methods is to have a proportional result.

PR-STV is designed to be similar to a process you could follow in a
town meeting like situation.

1) Each voter votes for 1 candidate
2) Work out the Droop quota
3) If any candidate exceeds the quota, that candidate is appointed to
the committee
-- Select some of the voters (equal to the surplus) who voted for the
candidate and allow them to move their vote
(This selection could be made at random, or by deweighting all of
those people's votes)
4) If no candidate reached the quota, eliminate the candidate with the
fewest votes
-- Allow those voters to move their vote to other candidates