[EM] electing a variable number of seats

[Juho Laatu]

If you want to keep this property, the approach proposed by Michael Rouse could determine the number of board members. If most votes go to few candidates, then there would be 5 members (with different weight). If the votes are more distributed, then all candidates (up to 9 candidates) that get support over some agreed limit would be elected. Alternatively one could use the number of unrepresented votes as the criterion on how many members to elect. This approach would improve proportionality and keep the size of the board small at the same time.

I'm not sure if this property of variable number of members is needed, but this approach would work anyway. And methods with non-identical voting power would indeed provide very good proportionality. So if non-identical voting power is not a problem and your organization is happy to try new innovative methods, this could be one way to go.

Regards,
Juho Laatu



On 18.2.2011, at 2.38, Charlie DeTar wrote:

> On 02/17/2011 07:21 PM, James Gilmour wrote:
>> Charlie
>> I see two problems here.
>> 
>> 1.  You do not give the conditions under which the constitution of this organisation allows the number of board members to be
>> varied.
>> 
>> 2.  More importantly, someone needs to define the purpose of this election a great deal better.  Who would have the power to add one
>> extra winner with a view to "improving representation" and who would decide what "improved representation" might be?  And just who
>> exactly would have the power to reduce the number elected board members with a view to "eliminating polarizing candidates" and who
>> would decide that the last winner was a "polarizing candidate" who should be excluded?
> 
> Valid points.  Currently, the bylaws allow between 5 and 9 board
> members.  The current process is that each member is voted on
> individually by simple majority of the voting members of the
> organization.  With this process, it's clear when the number changes: if
> only 5 candidates receive 50+% of the vote, there are only 5 board
> members; if 9, then there are 9.  There is not currently any defined
> process for what happens when (a) fewer than 5 people receive 50% of the
> vote, or (b) more than 9 people do; in the history of the organization
> it hasn't happened.  This is one aspect in which the current system is
> broken
> 
> I share your concerns with allowing an individual to have the authority
> to define when to grow or shrink the board.  However, if there were a
> voting system that could quantify questions like how well the electorate
> is represented, or whether a candidate is polarizing, the system could
> select the mix of candidates which would produce an optimal score
> according to those metrics.  If my language here sounds more like it
> comes from a machine learning world, that's because that's closer to my
> experience.
> 
> Thanks very much Markus and others for the sources and recommendations,
> I'll look into those.
> 
> best,
> Charlie
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