[EM] Electing Cabinets/Executive Committees

[Richard Lung]

I also have not seen this question before, and am not sure who wants to 
know the answer, tho I think all election methodologists should know 
that a general election method is sought that applies to all election 
circumstances (not to mention data representation in general).

Obviously a proportional election requires a proportional count, and 
what should be obvious, a preference vote, by which the voters can 
convey that proportional count. At least the mathematician Carl Andrae 
thought it was obvious when he invented the method in the 1850s. The key 
to understanding the Andrae system (Hare system, In English-speaking 
countries) is that you don't do what politicians did to the Andrae 
system, which was to shut voters into dogmatic little boxes, labeled 
this party or that. Because choice is relative, a question of more or 
less, as is proved by the concepts of a "wasted vote" (ever used by big 
parties twisting the arms of smaller parties supporters) and "strategic" 
or "tactical voting" (ever used by small parties trying to gain on 
bigger parties).

The term "inhomogenous" implicitly (maybe not intentionally) 
disqualifies the partisan ideal, which assumes voters are dogmatic 
supporters of one party, and to represent as many, or as few, as 
possible, the election method just regulates the election threshold. 
This, however, over-looks cross-party sympathies, meaning that people 
may be sensible, to some extent, to the virtues and vices of more then 
one party. To recognise this reality of cross-party proportional 
representation, as well as party proportional representation requires a 
transferable vote, both for independents outside parties, as well as 
independence within parties. I mean so that representatives, are 
directly accountable to the voters, as they are meant to be in a 
democracy, and not to party bosses, as is the case with party list 
systems. (Millions of people, thru-out the English-speaking world use 
non-partisan PR/STV, which really answers the question on this list.)

The logical details, that so absorb methodologists, are adequately 
over-come by at-large elections with STV. This is because as the 
election becomes more and more proportonal with more seats per 
constituency, the residual crude "last past the post" exclusion count 
becomes less and less important in determining the result. Indeed 
Instant Run-off Voting in single member districts is an irrational 
exclusion count rather than an election. It is the necessary reform of 
the vote, without an implied proportional reform of the count. The 
purpose of a preference vote is not to eliminate preferences but to 
elect proportions.

These detailed problems with traditional STV can be over-come. It is 
possible to have a rational exclusion count, as well as a rational 
election count. That is the system I have developed with Binomial STV. 
This is a consistent one-truth count not an inconsistent two (or more) 
truths count by conventional voting methods in general.

Regards,

Richard Lung.


On 29/03/2024 22:10, Richard, the VoteFair guy wrote:
> On 3/5/2024 7:26 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
> > I assume there's methods for this, but I don't know the search terms:
> > say I want to proportionally elect an inhomogeneous committee, like a
> > Cabinet or a set of executive officers. What methods handle this?
>
> Here's a calculation method I designed, applied to an example in which 
> the winners are cabinet ministers:
>
> http://www.negotiationtool.com/cabinetministers.html
>
> The calculation code is on GitHub, with the ReadMe being here:
>
> https://github.com/cpsolver/VoteFair-Negotiation-Tool/blob/master/README
>
> There's one paragraph about it on ElectoWiki here, under "VoteFair 
> Ranking":
>
> https://electowiki.org/wiki/VoteFair_Ranking
>
> I just found your question in a junk/spam folder, hence the delay in 
> replying.
>
> Richard Fobes
> The VoteFair guy
>
>
> On 3/5/2024 7:26 PM, Closed Limelike Curves wrote:
>> I assume there's methods for this, but I don't know the search terms: 
>> say I want to proportionally elect an inhomogeneous committee, like a 
>> Cabinet or a set of executive officers. What methods handle this?
>>
>> ----
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