[EM] [(2) EM] Stop Wasting Citizens’ Votes

[steve bosworth]

Hi Kristofer,
I'll reply inline below.
Steve

________________________________
From: Kristofer Munsterhjelm <km_elmet at t-online.de>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 4:54 AM
To: steve bosworth <stevebosworth at hotmail.com>; EM list <election-methods at electorama.com>
Subject: Re: [EM] Stop Wasting Citizens’ Votes

On 02.01.2022 03:38, steve bosworth wrote:
> SUBJECT: Stop Wasting Citizens’ Votes
>
> TO: All
>
> FROM: Steve

K: Looks good, as long as the voters are willing to let the candidates have
weighted votes in the assembly.

S: I can see that a winner with a smaller weighted vote in the legislative body than other winners might well prefer that each winner have only one vote as at present. However, each voter should correctly see weighted votes as an essential part of a system that guarantees that their vote will never be needlessly wasted in the assembly, quantitatively or qualitatively. Also, each winner should see weighted votes as necessary in order fully to respect the equality of each citizen.

K: I have a theoretical question, though. Suppose that some multi-winner
method elects a number of winners with weighted votes. If it's the case
that ranking X higher always gives X a higher weight relative to the
other winners, does this method never waste votes?

S:  With EPR, the weighted vote of the elected candidate that receives (includes) your vote would have the same weight regardless of whether you had awarded that candidate an Excellent or an Acceptable. The only context in which receiving an Excellent, more than an Acceptable, could help a candidate is when he or she is discovered to be tied -- to have exactly the same total number of votes (grades of at least Acceptable) when it is decide which of all the candidates has been elected. Such a tie is resolved by lot, unless one of the tied candidates is discovered to have at least one higher grade than the other tied candidates. Having this higher grade cannot give them a larger weighted vote in the assembly, but it could help to elect them in this relatively rare situation.

K: Or does "not wasting votes" mean more than just making the weights
responsive to the voter preferences?

S: No. Thank you for your questions.

Steve
-km
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