[EM] Portland specifics, and ovals for approval cutoff

Chris Benham cbenhamau at yahoo.com.au
Thu Jul 18 15:32:21 PDT 2024


> PSC is proportionality for solid coalitions 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportionality_for_solid_coalitions>.

That link is to a rubbish page.

There is a proper criterion called Droop Proportionality for Solid 
coalitions. Douglas Woodall from 1994:
>
> The most important single property of STV is what I call the/Droop 
> proportionality criterion/or/DPC/. Recall that if/v/votes are cast in 
> an election to fill/s/seats, then the quantity/v//(/s/+ 1) is called 
> the/Droop quota/.
>
>   * *DPC.*If, for some whole numbers/k/and/m/satisfying 0 </k/<=/m/,
>     more than/k/Droop quotas of voters put the same/m/candidates (not
>     necessarily in the same order) as the top/m/candidates in their
>     preference listings, then at least/k/of those/m/candidates should
>     be elected. (In the event of a tie, this should be interpreted as
>     saying that every outcome that is chosen with non-zero probability
>     should include at least/k/of these/m/candidates.)
>
> In statements of properties, the word "should" indicates that the 
> property says that something should happen, not necessarily that I 
> personally agree. However, in this case I certainly do: DPC seems to 
> me to be a/sine qua non/for a fair election rule. I suggest that any 
> system that satisfies DPC deserves to be called 
> a/quota-preferential/system and to be regarded as a system of 
> proportional representation (within each constituency)-an 
> STV-lookalike. Conversely, I assume that no member of the Electoral 
> Reform Society will be satisfied with anything that does not satisfy DPC.
>
> The property to which DPC reduces in a single-seat election should 
> hold (as a consequence of DPC) even in a multi-seat election, and it 
> deserves a special name.
>
>   * *Majority.*If more than half the voters put the same set of
>     candidates (not necessarily in the same order) at the top of their
>     preference listings, then at least one of those candidates should
>     be elected.
>

http://www.mcdougall.org.uk/voting-matters/ISSUE3/P5.HTM

Later he was calling that single-winner version "Majority for Solid 
Coalitions", presumably because others were using "Majority" to mean 
Majority for a Single Candidate and it's useful to have something short 
that means that.




On 19/07/2024 7:00 am, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
> PSC is proportionality for solid coalitions 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportionality_for_solid_coalitions>.
>
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 11:07 AM Richard, the VoteFair guy 
> <electionmethods at votefair.org> wrote:
>
>     On 7/15/2024 3:20 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>      > Richard, I'd suggest taking a look at the newest
>      > version of Wikipedia's PSC article (and the
>      > citations in there); ...
>
>     I don't recognize the PSC acronym.
>
>     And I can't find it in Wikipedia's PSC list:
>
>     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSC
>
>     Also, I suggest changing the email "subject" to the full name of
>     whatever PSC is.
>
>     Richard Fobes
>
>
>     On 7/15/2024 3:20 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>     > Richard, I'd suggest taking a look at the newest version of
>     Wikipedia's
>     > PSC article (and the citations in there); nonpartisan PR algorithms
>     > other than STV are a very new field of research, and we're just
>     barely
>     > starting to study what algorithms satisfy what proportionality
>     axioms.
>     >
>     > STV does try to put together a coalition, but this involves a
>     very basic
>     > greedy search for cohesive/solid coalitions that support a
>     single group
>     > of candidates. e.g. say a Hispanic Republican's preferences are
>     > something like "vote for a Hispanic Republican, then non-Hispanic
>     > Republicans, then a Hispanic Democrat"; whereas others Hispanic
>     > Republicans care more about ethnicity than about party. In this
>     > situation, there's no solid coalition for Hispanics /or/
>     Republicans, so
>     > it's very prone to underrepresent one of these groups. IIRC the
>     EVC's
>     > proposal for a proportional STAR algorithm works on basically
>     the same
>     > principle, as does anything that assigns seats
>     sequentially/greedily,
>     > which is why I tend to dislike them; whereas PAV is
>     optimization-based,
>     > so it tends to find better apportionments across cross-cutting
>     > coalitions. I think Schulze STV also satisfies similar
>     properties (but
>     > only locally, because global optimization across committees
>     requires
>     > voters to give candidates ratings).
>     >
>     > On Sun, Jul 14, 2024 at 10:22 AM Richard, the VoteFair guy
>     > <electionmethods at votefair.org
>     <mailto:electionmethods at votefair.org>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     On 7/13/2024 5:39 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>     >       > ...  my guess is the effect of STV is probably going to
>     be limited
>     >       > compared to other methods, because STV is only
>     proportional for
>     >     solid
>     >       > coalitions, i.e. voting blocs moving in perfect lockstep
>     with each
>     >       > other, and only if they exceed a full quota. ...
>     >
>     >     When using STV, coalitions don't need to be "solid."
>     >
>     >     STV calculations automatically identify de-facto
>     "coalitions."  Each
>     >     candidate can be thought of as a de-facto coalition.
>     >
>     >     One way to think of this concept is that STV gives any
>     coalition a
>     >     "second try" when filling the second seat, and a "third try"
>     when
>     >     filling the third seat.
>     >
>     >     In contrast, IRV provides only "one try" for a coalition to
>     elect their
>     >     candidate.  So for IRV, a "solid" coalition voting with the
>     same tactic
>     >     does have an advantage compared to a loose (non-solid)
>     coalition.
>     >
>     >     I'm not saying STV is better than PAV.  I'm saying this specific
>     >     criticism of STV -- thinking that a coalition must be
>     "solid" -- is not
>     >     a valid reason to dismiss STV.
>     >
>     >     Richard Fobes
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >     On 7/13/2024 5:39 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>     >      > Ahh, yeah, any PR method will outperform winner-take-all
>     on this
>     >     metric.
>     >      > If cities are using STV for their city councils, that
>     might imply
>     >      > single-winner IRV actively reduces minority representation.
>     >      >
>     >      > That said, my guess is the effect of STV is probably
>     going to be
>     >     limited
>     >      > compared to other methods, because STV is only
>     proportional for
>     >     solid
>     >      > coalitions, i.e. voting blocs moving in perfect lockstep
>     with each
>     >      > other, and only if they exceed a full quota. So, for
>     example, if
>     >     ethnic
>     >      > minorities tend to vote for a mix of white and minority
>     >     candidates, or
>     >      > if they're split across party lines (e.g. Hispanics only
>     go about
>     >     60-40
>     >      > for Democrats), this will tend to break up and dilute their
>     >     interests.
>     >      > It's not enough to have a quota of Hispanics who rate
>     Hispanic
>     >      > Republicans and Hispanic Democrats highly; you need to have a
>     >     full quota
>     >      > rank /either/ a Hispanic Republican or a Hispanic
>     Democrat at the
>     >     top of
>     >      > their ballots. The effect is the same as center-squeeze,
>     where
>     >     your vote
>     >      > gets "stuck" with a weak candidate who nevertheless has
>     enough first
>     >      > preferences to stay in the race for several rounds. By
>     the time this
>     >      > candidate is eliminated, the more-electable candidates
>     with fewer
>     >     first
>     >      > preferences have been defeated.
>     >      >
>     >      > But from what I can tell, this is much trickier to
>     resolve than
>     >      > center-squeeze; proportional Condorcet methods don't seem
>     to have
>     >     any
>     >      > guarantees on how out-of-whack a coalition can get,
>     although I think
>     >      > Schulze STV has a nice local stability property.
>     >      >
>     >      > Most ethnic minorities aren’t solid coalitions, although
>     >      > African-Americans happen to be so overwhelmingly
>     Democratic they
>     >     might
>     >      > act like one. Something like PAV that approximately
>     satisfies the
>     >     core
>     >      > property should do better at giving minority voters more
>     >     representation.
>     >      >
>     >      > On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 8:40 PM Richard, the VoteFair guy
>     >      > <electionmethods at votefair.org
>     >     <mailto:electionmethods at votefair.org>
>     >     <mailto:electionmethods at votefair.org
>     >     <mailto:electionmethods at votefair.org>>> wrote:
>     >      >
>     >      >     On 7/11/2024 10:47 AM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>     >      >       > ... given there's no theoretical basis to think
>     IRV would
>     >     affect
>     >      >       > city council and mayoral seats differently. ...
>     >      >
>     >      >     In the new Portland elections, "ranked choice voting" for
>     >     city-council
>     >      >     seats is STV (the Single Transferable Vote) with
>     three seats per
>     >      >     district, whereas "ranked choice voting" for Portland
>     mayor is
>     >      >     single-winner IRV (instant-runoff voting).
>     >      >
>     >      >     Of course Portland's three-seats-per-district STV
>     city-council
>     >      >     elections
>     >      >     are going to yield more gender and racial diversity
>     compared to
>     >      >     single-winner IRV for electing Portland's mayor.
>     >      >
>     >      >     Richard Fobes
>     >      >
>     >      >
>     >      >     On 7/11/2024 10:47 AM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>     >      >      > I'm going to go ahead and say I'm skeptical either
>     of these
>     >      >     results will
>     >      >      > replicate, given there's no theoretical basis to
>     think IRV
>     >      >     would affect
>     >      >      > city council and mayoral seats differently. My
>     guess is
>     >     both results
>     >      >      > would disappear if you used a hierarchical/partial
>     pooling
>     >     model to
>     >      >      > reduce the noise in the estimates.
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      > On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 10:45 AM Michael Garman
>     >      >      > <michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>
>     >      >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>>
>     >      >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>
>     >      >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>>>>
>     >      >      > wrote:
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >     And that’s bad! But it doesn’t negate the
>     point I made. In
>     >      >     council
>     >      >      >     races it helps. And that’s good!
>     >      >      >     On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 1:44 PM Closed
>     Limelike Curves
>     >      >      >     <closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>
>     >      >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>>
>     >      >      >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>
>     >      >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>>>> wrote:
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >          > In mayoral elections, RCV seems to
>     *decrease*
>     >     gender and
>     >      >      >         racial/ethnic diversity.
>     >      >      >         Sounds substantial!
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >         On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 10:28 AM Michael
>     Garman
>     >      >      >         <michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>
>     >      >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>>
>     >      >      >         <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>
>     >      >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us
>     >     <mailto:michael.garman at rankthevote.us>>>> wrote:
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >              > In city council elections, RCV has
>     a small but
>     >      >     positive
>     >      >      >             effect on racial/ethnic diversity
>     >      >      >             Sounds substantial!
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >             On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 1:26 PM Closed
>     >     Limelike Curves
>     >      >      >             <closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>
>     >      >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>>
>     >      >      >             <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>
>     >      >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com
>     >     <mailto:closed.limelike.curves at gmail.com>>>> wrote:
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >                 Empirically, IRV adoption has no
>     substantial
>     >      >     effects on
>     >      >      >                 diversity
>     >      >      >
>     >      >
>     >     
>      <https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/rcv-impact-on-candidate-entry-and-representation/
>     <https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/rcv-impact-on-candidate-entry-and-representation/>
>     <https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/rcv-impact-on-candidate-entry-and-representation/
>     <https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/rcv-impact-on-candidate-entry-and-representation/>>>.
>     In theory, I'd expect a small decrease in representation for
>     minorities, because people of color tend to have higher rates of
>     spoiled ballots, so IRV should hit them the hardest.
>     >      >      >
>     >      >      >                 In general, the theoretical
>     advantages of IRV
>     >      >     over FPP
>     >      >      >                 are outweighed by its practical
>     costs (spoiled
>     >      >     ballots,
>     >      >      >                 lower trust in elections, cost, etc.).
>     >      >      >                 ----
>     >      >      >                 Election-Methods mailing list - see
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>     >      >      >
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