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

[Joshua Boehme]

Reading this, my question was: what's the specific question we'd be answering?

In almost any real world application (i.e., anything other than an audience with a very strong math or programming background) I'd personally favor Approval over Schulze. From a pure theoretical standpoint, though, I'd put them in the opposite order.


On 4/4/24 01:13, Michael Ossipoff wrote:
> 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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