[EM] inaccurate Fargo approval voting results

Evangeline Moore evangeline.moore at ih21.org
Sun Jun 9 02:25:02 PDT 2024


> I think that Fargo's choice of denominator is at least as defensible as
> the denominator that Moore wants them to use.

I agree in theory, except it's not my decision, and the baseline was indeed
outlined already. See https://reformfargo.org/faq on the design of the
reform, under the question "Why do the results for the multi-winner races
in N.D. always seem off?"

They explain how voting percentage results affect perceptions of the
outcome, which we all know well, and then state very clearly:
*"In order for percentages for any multi-winner race to be reported in a
non-misleading fashion, they should be calculated as
"total-votes-for-candidate-X / total-voters-engaged-in-race" or
"total-votes-for-candidate-X / total-ballots-cast".*

*For our ballot initiative, we chose to mandate that percentages be
calculated with "total-votes-for-candidate-X / total-ballots-cast" for two
reasons: 1) Current Cass county election equipment is not capable of
providing "total-voters-engaged-in-race" and; 2) we want to shed light on
the lack of engagement many races receive and fight the skew that occurs
when facing the first scenario we outlined above." *

It's quite difficult to know which questions to preemptively address, so I
hope this helps, and I'm glad to answer more if you have them!

EM
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