[EM] Divided Majorities - Number Votes Matrix - Left Vote Shifts

[Andy Jennings]

> Related matter - majority votes for filling number blanks.
>
> Example-
> Percent of GDP for taxes --
> 0 to 100 percent in 1 percent units.
> Each legislator/voter picks a percentage
> Report the votes per percentage.
> Accumulate from 100 downward to get a bare majority of the total votes.
>
> i.e. NO endless amendments about filling number blanks.



It is not necessary to limit them to one percent units.

Once each legislator/voter picks a percentage, if there are an odd number
just find the median.  If there are an even number, you decide beforehand
which of the following you will do:
- pick the lower of the two middlemost values
- pick the higher of the two middlemost values
- average the two middlemost values

I prefer either the lower or the higher middlemost, because such order
statistics are "strategy-proof".  That is, assuming each voter's utility is
a single-peaked function of the output grade (and they aim to maximize
their utility), each voter's dominant strategy is to submit the percentage
that maximizes their utility.  In other words, this method incentivizes
honesty.

(If some voters aim to do something other than maximize their utility, like
"ruin the process" or "be the one who submitted the median value", then
things are not so simple...)

I have been thinking this for a while, and I would love to see it
implemented for precisely the situation you describe: the legislature, or
even the voters directly, choosing the overall tax rate.

~ Andy
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