[EM] Proxy Direct Democracy

[Peter Zbornik]

Hi all,

proxy voting for a person i in a specific election could maybe be
formalized as follows:

V:=(v1,...vi,..., vN), where vi is the vote of voter i, 1<=i<=N, N is the
number of voters.
V is the actual or publically announced votes of the voters, where 1 means
yes, and 0 means no.
sum(V) counts the number of yes votes in V.
sum(-V):=sum(-1*V+1) counts the number of no votes in V.

Let Wi:=fi(V).
Wi is the vector of weights that voter i attaches to the votes in
V, Wi=(Wi1,...Wii,...,WiN), 1<=i<=N., where the sum of all weights in Wi,
sum(Wi) must be <=1
fi(V) is a function which is specific for voter i and allocates the vote of
person i according to the votes in V.
Example, voter i gives the vote to voter j (i.e. j is the proxy of i). We
get Wi=fi(V)=(0,...,1,...,0), where the 1 occurs on place j in the vector,

The vote tally is conducted as follows:
The yes vote of voter i is then calculated as the sum of weights for the
yes votes: sum(Wi*V):=Wi1*V1+Wi2*V2+...+WiN*VN
The no vote of voter is is calculated as the sum of weights for the no
votes: sum(Wi*-V).

Example: Say we have three voters a, b, c.
The vote is on bill B.
V=(1, 0, 1), i.e. a and c votes yes. b votes no.
Wa=(1,0,0), a votes for him/herself not delegating to any proxy
Wb=(1,0,0) if sum(V)>=2, Wb=(0,1,0) otherwise (i.e. the weight vectors with
weight 1 for the first yes vote and the first no vote in V respectively),
i.e. b votes according to the majority of the voters (like in a party
fraction in parliament)
Wc=(1/3,2/3,0), i.e. c gives 1/3 of the vote to a and 2/3 of the vote to b.

Tally:
a: yes: 1, no: 0
b: yes: 1, no: 0
c: yes: 1/3, no: 2/3
Total: yes:2 1/3, no: 2/3
B gets a majority of yes votes and bill B is approved.

I think the generic framework above could be helpful when discussing the
possibilities of proxy voting.

Best regards
Peter Zbornik

On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 8:38 PM, Michael Allan <mike at zelea.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Mike (and Kathy),
>
> Mike wrote:
> > And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate,
> > or anyone special.  One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to
> > vote for hir. (As designated for a particular issue-category, or a
> > particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy).  It could be a
> > friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or advocate,
> > etc.
>
> I see such flexibility as a step toward the more general facility of
> giving the elector hir own ballot to do with as s/he pleases.  In that
> sense, proxy voting is a partial solution to the problems described
> here in my thesis, which I trace precisely to the lack of such a
> facility: http://zelea.com/project/autonomy/a/fau/fau.xht
>
> I do technical work with proxy voting myself for project Votorola.
> See the figure caption at bottom for links to the voting theory:
> http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.xht
>
> > As You [Kathy] suggested, you could designate a different proxy for
> > various kinds of issues. But there could be different opinions on
> > which issues are in which categories, unless vote issues are
> > specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be
> > necessary to designate such special proxies at the time of
> > voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote issues are
> > officially-designated by category, you could have pre-chosen proxies
> > for different categories of votes.
> >
> > Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a
> > special ranking of proxies) for any particular vote too.
>
> We found it simpler to begin there, with the assumption that the voter
> would cast a separate vote on every issue.  This is the general case
> for us.  Category voting then becomes the special case; or actually
> cases, because we allow any number of category schemes to be layered
> atop the simple general system.
>
> --
> Michael Allan
>
> Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
> http://zelea.com/
>
>
> Mike Ossipoff wrote:
> > Kathy--
> >
> > You wrote:
> >
> >
> > Why not make the idea better yet? Allow all voters to select a
> > different representative for each issue of interest to the voter, so
> > that one rep might be tasked to vote on environmental issues, another
> > on education issues, and perhaps another on foreign trade treaty
> > issues or on judicial appointments.... A voter could simply select a
> > person to vote on all issues, or select separate persons for different
> > issues.
> >
> > [endquote]
> >
> > Absolutely. I don't remember if that was in my earlier proposal, but of
course
> > it should be.
> >
> > One would have a pre-chosen default proxy designation, as I described,
but one would also be
> > able to designate a proxy on any particular vote.
> >
> > And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate, or
anyone special.
> > One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to vote for hir. (As
designated for a particular
> > issue-category, or a particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy).
> > It could be a friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or
> > advocate, etc.
> >
> > The Proxy Direct Democracy that I proposed could be voted by telephone
or Internet.
> >
> > As I mentioned, the voter would have an anonymous voter ID number.
> >
> > That would make voting by telephone or website feasible.
> >
> > Here's one way that the voter could get that ID number:
> >
> > The person intending to register to vote writes a random 20 digit
number on a piece
> > of paper, and folds the paper. In the registration office, s/he drops
it into a drum
> > of other people's similarly-folded, identical-looking, voter ID number
slips, and turns the drum, to obscure which paper
> > s/he dropped in.
> >
> > That number now is an anonymous voter ID number. A voter can use it to
vote by phone, or at
> > a website. And, additionally, of course, the voter can designate a
default proxy, for any vote in
> > which that voter doesn't take part.
> >
> >
> > As You suggested, you could designate a different proxy for various
kinds of issues. But
> > there could be different opinions on which issues are in which
categories, unless vote issues are
> > specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be
necessary to designate such
> > special proxies at the time of voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote
issues are officially-designated by
> > category, you could have pre-chosen proxies for different categories of
votes.
> >
> > Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a
special ranking of proxies) for
> > any particular vote too.
> >
> > So you can vote only on issues that interest you and that you're
informed on, confident that
> > you've designated someone else to vote on the others for you.
> >
> > Mike Ossipoff
> >
> >
> > guess a potential problem with this is that some issues
> > overlap and Congress would have to stop the horsetrading process of
> > throwing dozens of unrelated things into the same bill.
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
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