[EM] Burlington VT reconsidering IRV 10 years after IRV failed to elect the Condorcet Winner

[Juho Laatu]

I used the formulation in your first mail as a basis. It seems to be the same as the original in the mail below, except that it uses twice word "re-tabulation" instead of "retabulation". Technically I kept all the text identical (starting from "All elections of mayor ...", including all the four sections), except that there were some changes in section (3). My intention was to keep as much of the original text as possible to make your job of explaining the differences easy, and to make it easy to accept the new proposal. Also in section (3) the beginning part of the text is the same as before, and only the end (starting from "each voter’s ballot shall count ..." in the original version) has been rearranged, and some text added. The changed part starts with "if one of the continuing candidates is preferred ...".

The only change to the original proposal below is thus to replace section (3) with the proposed new section (3). (and maybe to use term "retabulation")

> The language in the brackets "more often than the other way around" needs to be different.


I tried to keep the text as short as possible. If that optional part of text is needed, maybe there is some better formulation. If a longer and more straight forward version is needed, maybe something like "in more ballots than the other candidate is preferred over this candidate".

If you need even more text, then that whole sentence ("In each round ... ... will be elected.") could be replaced with something like: "In each round every continuing candidate is compared separately to every other continuing candidate. if a candidate is ranked higher in higher number of ballots than the other candidate is ranked higher than this candidate, then this candidate is said to be preferred over the other candidate. If one continuing candidate is preferred over all other continuing candidates, then that candidate will be elected."

In my proposal I used also text "[, when that candidate is compared to every other continuing candidate one by one]" instead of a possible short expression "[, in pairwise comparisons]". I note this just because you commented use of term "pairwise" in another mail.

BR, Juho



> On 05 Dec 2019, at 05:26, robert bristow-johnson <rbj at audioimagination.com> wrote:
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> 
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>> On December 4, 2019 9:50 PM Juho Laatu <juho.laatu at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> (3) If no candidate receives a majority of first preferences, an instant runoff re-tabulation shall be performed by the presiding election officer. The instant runoff re-tabulation shall be conducted in rounds. In each round, if one of the continuing candidates is preferred [in the ranked ballots] over any other continuing candidate [more often than the other way around] [, when that candidate is compared to every other continuing candidate one by one], then that candidate will be elected. If there is no such candidate, each voter’s ballot shall count as a single vote for whichever continuing candidate the voter has ranked highest, and the candidate with the fewest votes shall be eliminated.
>> 
> 
> The language in the brackets "more often than the other way around" needs to be different.
> 
> Juho, if you could take the following original and graft your (3) into it, that makes it something to compare to.
> 
> Here is their (non-Condorcet RCV) original:
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> ________________________________________________________
> 
> NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that, for the purpose of placing a charter change question on the March 3, 2020 town meeting election ballot, the City Council hereby refers the following question amending City Charter § 5 to its Charter Change Committee for review and recommendation to the full City Council by its December 16, 2019 meeting, in order to reintroduce ranked choice voting for the election of the City’s mayor, city councilors, and school commissioners:
> 
> § 5 Election to be by ballot; method of election:
> 
> All elections of mayor, city councilors and school commissioners shall be by ballot, using a system of ranked choice voting without a separate runoff election. The chief administrative officer shall implement a
> ranked choice voting protocol according to these guidelines:
>  (1) The ballot shall give voters the option of ranking candidates in order of preference.
>  (2) If a candidate receives a majority (over 50 percent) of first preferences, that candidate is elected.
>  (3) If no candidate receives a majority of first preferences, an instant runoff retabulation shall be performed by the presiding election officer. The instant runoff retabulation shall be conducted in rounds. In each round, each voter’s ballot shall count as a single vote for whichever continuing candidate the voter has ranked highest. The candidate with the fewest votes after each round shall be eliminated until only two candidates remain, with the candidate then receiving the greatest number of votes being elected.
>  (4) The city council may adopt additional regulations consistent with this subsection to implement these standards.
> ________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> Here is my latest BTR-STV stab at it:
> 
> ________________________________________________________
> 
> NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that, for the purpose of placing a charter change question on the March 3, 2020 town meeting election ballot, the City Council hereby refers the following question amending City Charter § 5 to its Charter Change Committee for review and recommendation to the full City Council by its December 16, 2019 meeting, in order to reintroduce ranked choice voting for the election of the City’s mayor, city councilors, and school commissioners:
> 
> § 5 Election to be by ballot; method of election:
> 
> All elections of mayor, city councilors and school commissioners shall be by ballot, using a system of ranked choice voting without a separate runoff election. The chief administrative officer shall implement a ranked choice voting protocol according to these guidelines:
>  (1) The ballot shall give voters the option of ranking candidates in order of preference.
>  (2) If a candidate receives a majority (over 50 percent) of first preferences, that candidate is elected.
>  (3) If no candidate receives a majority of first preferences, an instant runoff retabulation shall be performed by the presiding election officer. The instant runoff retabulation shall be conducted in sequential rounds. A "remaining candidate" is defined as a candidate that has not been eliminated in any previous round. Initially, no candidate is eliminated and all candidates begin as remaining candidates.
>  (4) In each round, each voter’s ballot shall count as a single vote for whichever remaining candidate the voter has ranked highest. The two candidates with the fewest votes in a round, herein designated as "A" and "B", shall be compared in a runoff in which the candidate, A or B, with lesser voter support is eliminated in the current round. If the number of ballots having A ranked higher than B exceeds the number of ballots having B ranked higher than A, then B has lesser voter support, B is eliminated, and A remains for the following round. Likewise, if the number of ballots having B ranked higher than A exceeds the number of ballots having A ranked higher than B, then A has lesser voter support, A is eliminated, and B remains for the following round. In the case that the aforementioned measure of voter support between A and B is tied, then the candidate with fewest votes is eliminated in the current round.
>  (5) This runoff retabulation, eliminating one candidate each round, is repeated until only two candidates remain, with the candidate then receiving the greatest number of votes being elected.
>  (6) The city council may adopt additional regulations consistent with this subsection to implement these standards.
> ________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> r b-j rbj at audioimagination.com
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> 
> "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
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