[EM] How choice of voting systems depend on amount of participants

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

On 09/25/2014 06:42 PM, Richard Fobes wrote:
>  > I exactly assumed that for small polls (say 10 voters) a simple majority
>  > with only one winner can be more favorable than scoring all entries in
>  > ballots.
>
> I don't understand what you mean here.
>
> A simple majority is only assured if there are just two
> candidates/choices.  (Except in the case of a tie.)
>
> If one of the candidates/choices gets a majority (more than half the
> votes), then all the "good" voting methods would declare that
> candidate/choice as the winner.  This means the choice of voting method
> does not matter if there is a majority winner.
>
> The number of _choices_ (candidates) does make a big difference on the
> results.  In contrast, the number of _voters_ does not make a big
> difference (except that ties are more likely if there are a small number
> of voters).

Few voters might make it easier to find a consensus candidate if there's 
also a way to discuss the candidates. Such a consensus candidate could 
win by simple majority (or supermajority). Perhaps that's what he was 
talking about - but that's properly speaking outside of the domain of 
the election method itself.