[EM] Poll on voting-systems, to inform voters in upcoming enactment-elections

[John T Whelan]

Given the purpose of the poll, I think FPTP should also be included, since that's what the real world propositions are presumably to replace.

John Whelan
jtw24 at cornell.edu

________________________________
From: Election-Methods <election-methods-bounces at lists.electorama.com> on behalf of Michael Ossipoff <email9648742 at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2024 1:13:28 AM
To: EM list <election-methods at electorama.com>
Subject: [EM] Poll on voting-systems, to inform voters in upcoming enactment-elections

EM used to do a lot of polls, but now never does. So I wouldn’t propose one, if it weren’t for the fact that, this year, the voters of at least two states are going to vote on whether to enact a certain voting-system.

It seems to me—tell me if I’m wrong—that those people have a right to know how people familiar with voting-systems feel about the relative merits of some voting-systems.

So, though I claim that polls are valuable for demonstrating the experience of using the voting systems, & how they work, & what they’ll do—& are therefore useful & worthwhile for their own sake—this poll that I now propose isn’t a poll for its own sake.

It is, as I said, proposed for the important practical purpose of letting the voters in the upcoming enactment-elections know how we feel about the relative merits of some voting-systems, including the one that they’re about to vote on the enactment of.

The voting-method for the poll:

It seems to me that Schulze is the most popular ranked voting-system, among the people at EM.

…& it seems to me that the last time we voted on EM’s collective favorite voting-system, Approval won.

Those seem the top-two, in EM popularity.

I prefer RP(wv) to Beatpath, mostly for its simple, intuitively natural & obvious rule, but also for its LIIAC compliance, & the fact that its winner usually pairbeats Schulze’s winner.

But I guess Schulze is more popular due to its more efficient algorithm.

Anyway so I suggest that the poll I propose have a Schulze balloting & count, & an Approval balloting & count.

Voting would consist of posting a ranking & an approval-set, in one post.

Candidate voting-systems:

My purpose isn’t an all-inclusive poll among all proposed voting-systems. …just a very few ones that are the most popular here at EM, solely to have a little comparison to the main voting system being publicly voted on this year.

So it should just be among a few voting-systems. Additionally, no reason to make the alternatives-lineup too time-consumingly large by including methods unlikely to win anyway.

I’ll suggest a few obvious inclusions. But, of course every poll here should have the possibility of nomination of whatever alternative anyone wants to nominate.

I’ll list my nominations in this post, & I claim that those few are all the alternatives needed for the poll.  …& anyone can nominate anything during a 1-week nomination-period.

I suggest the following voting-systems as candidates in the poll, the alternatives among which to vote:

Approval
RP(wv)
Schulze
IRV

(Schulze & RP are often said to be the ranked-methods most popular among single-winner reform  community, & that seems true at EM.)


Is there any need for more alternatives than that?

I suggest a nomination period of exactly one week, starting at the time recorded as the posting-time-&-date of this post.

After which a voting-period of exactly one month would start…at the exact time as the end of the nomination-period.

If there are no nominations (I suggest that none are needed) during the nomination-period—& if, during the nomination-period, no one posts the words “I second the suggestion of a poll”—then of course there’d not be a poll.

Again, I realize that polls are no longer popular here, but this is a special situation, bringing a need for voters in the upcoming public enactment-election to have a chance to hear how people at EM feel about relative merit among voting-systems. So let’s make an exception to the absence of polls here, for voters in the next election.










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