[EM] Census re-districting instead of PR for allocating seats to districts.

[Juho Laatu]

On 4.7.2012, at 23.10, Michael Ossipoff wrote:

>> But if your independent that you vote for locally doesn't win a district seat, s/he might still win an at-large seat in the national list PR allocation, because, as I said, there's no reason why an independent shouldn't be able to run as a 1-candidate "party". So, if you really want to elect hir, then vote for hir in your district STV election, and also in the national PR allocation election. We're assuming that s/he's a candidate in your district, which is why you can vote for hir in your district STV election.
> 
> Here you refer to a separate "national PR allocation election". Is your plan maybe that the voter casts one ranked vote in the district STV election and one party vote in the national party election?
>  
> [endquote]
>  
> Yes. It would just be the usual topping-up enhancement, but for STV in the districts.
>  
>  
>  
> You wrote:
>  
> Note that this kind of methods may easily allow such free riding where parties list some of their strong candidates (that will be certainly elected) as independent candidates in the districts. This makes the total number of seats of that party appear smaller that it in reality is. And that may lead to more top-up seats to this party.
>  
> [endquote]
>  
> Nothing wrong with that. Every party supporter who votes for the "independent" is one who doesn't vote for the party nationwide. So the party's national count will be less.
>  
> But what if the "independent" is someone who is popular with people other than the party's supporters too? Fine. Again, nothing wrong with that. It's fair and right that s/he gets that other support. The party isn't being unfairly helped. Hir extra nonparty support counts for hir as an independent, and not for that party, because s/he appeals to people other than party supporters.
>  
> Mike Ossipoff

I didn't understand yet fully how the voter can vote. Is it possible to vote A>B>C and (separately) give the national party vote to party P? (where A is the "independent" of party P) If this is possible, and party P supporters vote this way, and many "independents" of party P will be elected, then party P is likely to get many representatives that are "independent", and the number of its "non-independent" representatives is smaller that its proportional share (that is derived from the national party votes), and therefore party P will get some extra seats in the top-up process. Party P will thus get its proportional share of the seats + several "independents" (that the method does not conseder to be party P representatives, although in practice they are). That would mean that the method is vulnerable to running some candidates (likely winners) as "independents" to get more seats.

Juho




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