[EM] Fair and Democratic versus Majority Rules

[fsimmons at pcc.edu]

When majority rules, a 51 percent majority can have their way in election after election. But what other  
possible standard is there for democracy and fairness besides "majority rule?"

One answer is that every sector of the population ought to have a chance at being in charge, and that 
chance should be in rough proportion to the size of the sector of the population.

A simple baseline method for accomplishing this goal is the "random ballot" method.

But there are other methods that accomplish the same thing without so much randomness, and with 
higher degrees of consensus.

Here's a method to consider:

Voters submit score ballots and plurality ballots separately.

Anybody or any organization may also submit as many lotteries as desired.

A random ballot lottery is calculated from the plurality ballots.

Let W be the set of lotteries that score at least as high as the random ballot lottery on at least 99 
percent of the score ballots.

Let L be the member of W with the least entropy (breaking ties if necessary with random score ballot).

Use lottery L to elect the winner.