[EM] PR solutions

[Michael Ossipoff]

Juho--

I understand that d'Hondt has majoritarian advantages that justify its bias,
and consequent loss of some proportionality.

I don't understand the "minimize violation of opinions" standard that you're
referring to. (But I'm _not_ asking you to explain it for me.) I don't know
if it's a valid standard that favors Largest Remainder, or not. I'm not
qualified to argue the matter, because I'm not involved in the study of PR
anymore. That's because PR has no role in U.S. electoral reform. Certainly
not now.

I can only repeat that Balinski & Young, in their book,  _Fair
Representation_,  showed why Sainte-Lague is the proportional PR, and that I
showed it too, at the barnsdle electoral reform website.

I don't know what you mean by "minimize violation of opinions".  I'd ask,
except that I don't argue or discuss PR principles anymore. Because I don't
do PR anymore, because it isn't relevant here, I must say, "Maybe you're
right--I concede the matter."

I would just point out that if you give 5% of the seats to a party because
5% of the voters like that party, and 95% of the voters dislike them, then I
would say that you're violating a whole lot of opinions. It would seem that
PR is inconsistent with minimizing violation of opinions.

But if _proportionality_ is the goal of PR, then Sainte-Lague, and not
Largest-Remainder supports that goal. And d'Hondt balances that goal with
majoritarianism, without Largest-Remainder's unnecessary random fluctuations
from proportionality.

STV can be justified because some people prefer voting for individuals, and
because STV gets rid of the small amount of split-vote problem that remains
even with good list systems.

I have to say that I can't find any justification of Largest Remainder,
other than the claim that it's simpler to justify to people who aren't
familiar with proportionality--at the cost of an unaesthetic parting-of-ways
with proportionality as soon as the remainder seats begin to be allocated.
When the remainder seats begin to be allocated, proportionality is out the
window.

But as I said above, I don't claim to be qualified in PR, and I don't
discuss or argue it now, and so maybe you're right. I concede the matter.

Anyway, as a practical matter, all of the PR systems and methods are really
alright.

Mike Ossipoff