[EM] Results of poll for favorite multi-winner voting system

Jeffrey O'Neill jeff.oneill at openstv.org
Sun Nov 20 18:13:57 PST 2011


The results for the multi-winner voting system poll are in. Only 15 people
voted, but the results are interesting nonetheless. The votes were counted
using instant runoff voting, Condorcet, and the Borda count.
Instant Runoff Voting

Not surprisingly, Meek STV was the runaway winner, and WIGM STV was a solid
second place. I do find it interesting that some people prefer WIGM STV to
Meek STV. Meek is clearly better than WIGM in terms of the quality of the
proportional representation, but apparently some people find the simplicity
of WIGM more important.

Open list PR was in third although the one voter for closed list PR had
Meek as the next choice. Because of the small number of voters we can't
read much into this though.
Condorcet

All three STV candidates did well as did open list PR. I find it surprising
that cumulative voting and limited voting did so poorly since these two
methods provide reasonable proportional representation and are also very
easy to count. Approval voting did not do well, likely because it does not
provide good proportional representation. Plurality at-large voting was
last on every ballot except that it beat mixed member on one ballot.
Borda Count

The three STV candidates again did very well as well as open list PR. I'm
surprised that open list PR did so much better than closed list PR as I
don't find the differences between the two that significant.
Summary

This was a more difficult poll to run since there are many factors to
consider in selecting a multi-winner voting system and any particular
system may be good in some situations but not in others. I personally
believe that STV, and especially Meek STV, is a good choice in many
situations, and many others seem to agree.

Thank you for participating in these polls, and feel free to do your own
polls at opavote.org or to contact me with suggestions for future polls.
------------------------------

Counting votes using Instant Runoff Voting.

 R|Open l|Closed|Mixed |Cumula|Limite|Plural|Meek S|WIGM S|Other |Approv|Exhaus
  |ist PR| list |member|tive v|d voti|ity at|TV    |TV (eg|STV   |al vot|ted
  |      |PR    | PR   |oting |ng    |-large|      |, Scot|      |ing   |
  |      |      |      |      |      | votin|      |tish S|      |      |
  |      |      |      |      |      |g     |      |TV)   |      |      |
===============================================================================
 1|     1|     1|     1|     1|     0|     0|     6|     3|     1|     1|     0
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count of first choices.
===============================================================================
 2|     1|     1|     1|     1|      |      |     6|     3|     1|     1|     0
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Limited voting and Plurality at-large voting and
  | transferring votes. Since this is the first elimination round, all
  | candidates without any votes are eliminated.
===============================================================================
 3|     2|     1|      |     1|      |      |     6|     3|     1|     1|     0
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Mixed member PR and transferring votes. Candidates
  | Open list PR, Closed list PR, Mixed member PR, Cumulative voting, Other
  | STV, and Approval voting were tied when choosing candidates to eliminate.
  | Candidate Mixed member PR was chosen by breaking the tie randomly.
===============================================================================
 4|     2|     1|      |     1|      |      |     7|     3|      |     1|     0
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Other STV and transferring votes. Candidates Closed
  | list PR, Cumulative voting, Other STV, and Approval voting were tied when
  | choosing candidates to eliminate. Candidate Other STV was chosen by
  | breaking the tie randomly.
===============================================================================
 5|     2|     1|      |     1|      |      |     7|     3|      |      |     1
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Approval voting and transferring votes. Candidates
  | Closed list PR, Cumulative voting, and Approval voting were tied when
  | choosing candidates to eliminate. Candidate Approval voting was chosen by
  | breaking the tie randomly.
===============================================================================
 6|     2|      |      |     1|      |      |     8|     3|      |      |     1
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Closed list PR and transferring votes. Candidates
  | Closed list PR and Cumulative voting were tied when choosing candidates to
  | eliminate. Candidate Closed list PR was chosen by breaking the tie
  | randomly.
===============================================================================
 7|     2|      |      |      |      |      |     8|     3|      |      |     2
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Cumulative voting and transferring votes.
===============================================================================
 8|      |      |      |      |      |      |     9|     3|      |      |     3
  |----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Count after eliminating Open list PR and transferring votes. Candidate Meek
  | STV is elected.

Winner is Meek STV.


------------------------------

Counting votes using Condorcet Voting.

Pairwise Comparison Matrix:

    |Open|Clos|Mixe|Cumu|Limi|Plur|Meek|WIGM|Othe|Appr
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Open|   0|  12|  10|  13|  12|  13|   3|   4|   5|  13
Clos|   1|   0|   3|   9|   8|  10|   3|   2|   2|   8
Mixe|   4|   9|   0|   9|   9|  11|   3|   2|   2|  10
Cumu|   1|   2|   3|   0|   8|  10|   1|   1|   1|   8
Limi|   1|   2|   3|   2|   0|   9|   0|   0|   0|   4
Plur|   0|   0|   1|   0|   0|   0|   0|   0|   0|   0
Meek|  10|   9|  10|  11|  11|  11|   0|   9|   8|  11
WIGM|   9|  10|  11|  12|  12|  12|   3|   0|   8|  12
Othe|   8|  10|  11|  12|  12|  12|   4|   4|   0|  12
Appr|   2|   4|   3|   3|   7|   9|   2|   2|   2|   0

Smith Set: Meek STV

No completion necessary since the Smith set has just one candidate.
Winner is Meek STV.


------------------------------

Counting votes using Approval Voting.

                  Candidate | Count
===================================
               Open list PR |    13
             Closed list PR |    10
            Mixed member PR |    12
          Cumulative voting |    10
             Limited voting |     9
  Plurality at-large voting |     6
                   Meek STV |    11
WIGM STV (eg, Scottish STV) |    12
                  Other STV |    12
            Approval voting |     9
                  Exhausted |     0

Count of all approvals.

Winner is Open list PR.


------------------------------

Counting votes using Borda Count.

                  Candidate | Count
===================================
               Open list PR |    85
             Closed list PR |    46
            Mixed member PR |    59
          Cumulative voting |    35
             Limited voting |    21
  Plurality at-large voting |     1
                   Meek STV |    90
WIGM STV (eg, Scottish STV) |    89
                  Other STV |    85
            Approval voting |    34
                  Exhausted |   130

Borda count totals.

Winner is Meek STV.



_________________________________________________________
OpenSTV -- Software for counting STV and ranked-choice voting
OpaVote -- Online elections for ranked-choice voting
http://www.OpenSTV.org
http://www.OpaVote.org
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