[EM] Detailed stats for the ordinal methods

Richard, the VoteFair guy electionmethods at votefair.org
Thu May 9 09:08:05 PDT 2024


Bravo Kristofer!  Thank you for doing these valuable calculations!!

IMO it reveals two important points:

* The methods that get the highest resistance to strategic/tactical 
voting are methods that combine pairwise vote counting with IRV-style 
counting.  Specifically the lowest failure rates are for:

** RCIPE (IRV with pairwise eliminations)
** Benham (IRV except stop when pairwise winner)
** Smith-IRV (Woodall)
** Schwartz-IRV (Schwartz-Woodall)
** IRV.

* When a method is designed to achieve a zero failure rate for a 
fairness criterion, the method develops weaknesses regarding other kinds 
of failures.  For example, the Schulze method achieves zero clone 
failures at the expense of being less resistant to strategic/tactical 
voting.

I'm excited that we are now looking deeper into election methods instead 
of just looking for zero-versus-nonzero failure rates!

Again, thank you Kristofer for doing this valuable work!

Richard Fobes
The VoteFair guy


On 5/8/2024 5:56 PM, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
> I said I was going to either put up a link to or just post the detailed 
> manipulability stats for the methods. Due to current simulator 
> limitations, the per-category breakdown can be considerably off for 
> cardinal and approval methods (as well as their hybrids), so I won't 
> post those. (Namely, it may register burial or compromising as "other".) 
> But for the ordinal methods, the per-category information should be 
> correct. So here goes!
> 
> There are a few points to note: each run for a single method starts with 
> the RNG set to a fixed seed. This means that two methods that behave 
> identically will have the exact same result.
> 
> In addition, Ranked Pairs and the elimination methods have non-neutral 
> tiebreaks: they break ties in favor of earlier numbered candidates. 
> However, since the spatial generator doesn't care about the order it 
> generates its candidates, this is in effect the same thing as a random 
> ordering tiebreak.
> 
> These effects mostly explain why Smith//IRV and Schwartz//IRV have the 
> same results, and why the elimination methods (as well as RP) have zero 
> ties. The thing they don't explain is how the Smith and Schwartz sets 
> seem to coincide (to get the identical behavior), and I'm not sure why 
> that happens.
> 
> There are four strategy types:
>      - Burial: every voter in the strategic coalition tries to get the 
> candidate X they all prefer to the current winner W, to win, by ranking 
> W uniquely at bottom.
>      - Compromising: every voter in the coalition tries to get X to win 
> by raising X to the top, above every other candidate.
>      - Two-way: Both burial and compromising at once.
>      - Other: everything else.
> 
> Taking the report for Schulze as an example:
> 
>>     11: Schulze
>> Ties: 0.001724 (862) Of the non-ties:
>> Burial, no compromise:        124456  0.249342
>> Compromise, no burial:        751     0.00150459
>> Burial and compromise:        1003    0.00200946
>> Two-sided:                    39359   0.0788539
>> Other coalition strats:       695     0.0013924
>> ===============================================
>> Manipulable elections:        166264  0.333102
>>
>> Worked in 166264 (0.3324, 0.3338) out of 499138 for Schulze(wv) ties: 862
> 
> This says that there were 862 elections where the honest outcome was a 
> tie, which thus were skipped. Of those that did not have a honest tie,
> 
> 24.93% of the elections were vulnerable to burial but not compromising,
>   0.15% of the elections were vulnerable to compromising but not burial,
>   0.20% of the elections were vulnerable to both compromising and burial,
>   7.89% of the elections were vulnerable to two-sided strategy but
>      neither burial nor compromising on their own,
> and
>   0.14% of the elections were immune to the above strategies but
>      vulnerable to something else.
> 
> In total that gives 33.31% of the non-tie elections being vulnerable to 
> some kind of strategy: or 166264 out of 499138.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The detailed stats are, in no particular order, and with non-poll 
> methods marked with an asterisk as before:
> 
> Using ballot domain Gaussian, sigma = 1
> 
>      0: *BTR-IRV
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  63778   0.127556
> Compromise, no burial:  2397    0.004794
> Burial and compromise:  198     0.000396
> Two-sided:              104608  0.209216
> Other coalition strats:    34603   0.069206
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:    205584    0.411168
> 
> Worked in 205584 (0.4105, 0.4119) out of 500000 for 
> BTREliminate-[ER-Plurality]/fd ties: 0 (0)
> 
> 
>      3: *Borda
> Ties: 0.007576 (3788)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  149385    0.301051
> Compromise, no burial:  33338    0.067185
> Burial and compromise:  77412    0.156006
> Two-sided:              84390    0.170068
> Other coalition strats: 1766    0.00355896
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  346291    0.697869
> 
> Worked in 346291 (0.6972, 0.6985) out of 496212 for ER-Borda ties: 3788
> 
>      4: Smith//IRV (Woodall)
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  15443   0.030886
> Compromise, no burial:  2427    0.004854
> Burial and compromise:  114     0.000228
> Two-sided:              3262    0.006524
> Other coalition strats: 16050    0.0321
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  37296    0.074592
> 
> Worked in 37296 (0.0742, 0.075) out of 500000 for [Smith]//[ER-IRV/fd] 
> ties: 0
> 
>      5: Schwartz//IRV (Schwartz-Woodall)
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  15443    0.030886
> Compromise, no burial:  2427    0.004854
> Burial and compromise:  114     0.000228
> Two-sided:              3262    0.006524
> Other coalition strats: 16050    0.0321
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  37296    0.074592
> 
> Worked in 37296 (0.0742, 0.075) out of 500000 for 
> [Schwartz]//[ER-IRV/fd] ties: 0
> 
>      6: Benham
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  15627    0.031254
> Compromise, no burial:  2572    0.005144
> Burial and compromise:  70      0.00014
> Two-sided:              3062    0.006124
> Other coalition strats: 15724    0.031448
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  37055    0.07411
> 
> Worked in 37055 (0.0737, 0.0745) out of 500000 for 
> Benham-Meta[ER-IRV/fd] ties: 0
> 
>      7a: Copeland//Borda (Ranked Robin)
> Ties: 0.000498 (249)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  181882    0.363945
> Compromise, no burial:  449     0.000898447
> Burial and compromise:  1823    0.00364782
> Two-sided:              53215    0.106483
> Other coalition strats: 2460    0.00492245
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  239829    0.479897
> 
> Worked in 239829 (0.4792, 0.4806) out of 499751 for 
> [Copeland]//[ER-Borda] ties: 249
> 
>      7b: RCIPE
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:    16077    0.032154
> Compromise, no burial:    2456    0.004912
> Burial and compromise:    282    0.000564
> Two-sided:        2765    0.00553
> Other coalition strats:    15571    0.031142
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:    37151    0.074302
> 
> Worked in 37151 (0.0739, 0.0747) out of 500000 for Eliminate-[[Condorcet 
> non-loser],[ER-Plurality]]/fd ties: 0 (0)
> 
>      8: Minmax
> Ties: 0.00165 (825)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  123185    0.246777
> Compromise, no burial:  731    0.00146442
> Burial and compromise:  1000    0.00200331
> Two-sided:              38597    0.0773216
> Other coalition strats: 1971    0.00394852
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  165484    0.331515
> 
> Worked in 165484 (0.3309, 0.3322) out of 499175 for Minmax(wv) ties: 825
> 
>      9: Plurality
> Ties: 0.020924 (10462)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  0       0
> Compromise, no burial:  204344    0.417422
> Burial and compromise:  0       0
> Two-sided:              0       0
> Other coalition strats: 0       0
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  204344    0.417422
> 
> Worked in 204344 (0.4167, 0.4181) out of 489538 for ER-Plurality ties: 
> 10462
> 
>      10: IRV
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  0       0
> Compromise, no burial:  21348    0.042696
> Burial and compromise:  0       0
> Two-sided:              0       0
> Other coalition strats: 15789    0.031578
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  37137    0.074274
> 
> Worked in 37137 (0.0739, 0.0747) out of 500000 for ER-IRV/fd ties: 0
> 
>      11: Schulze
> Ties: 0.001724 (862)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  124456    0.249342
> Compromise, no burial:  751     0.00150459
> Burial and compromise:  1003    0.00200946
> Two-sided:              39359    0.0788539
> Other coalition strats: 695     0.0013924
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  166264    0.333102
> 
> Worked in 166264 (0.3324, 0.3338) out of 499138 for Schulze(wv) ties: 862
> 
>      12: Baldwin
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  106015    0.21203
> Compromise, no burial:  72      0.000144
> Burial and compromise:  2527    0.005054
> Two-sided:              11253    0.022506
> Other coalition strats: 54895    0.10979
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  174762    0.349524
> 
> Worked in 174762 (0.3489, 0.3502) out of 500000 for ER-Baldwin/fd ties: 0
> 
>      13: Condorcet//Borda (Black)
> Ties: 0.000266 (133)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  176214    0.352522
> Compromise, no burial:  2215    0.00443118
> Burial and compromise:  195     0.000390104
> Two-sided:              79258    0.158558
> Other coalition strats: 14555    0.0291177
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  272437    0.545019
> 
> Worked in 272437 (0.5443, 0.5457) out of 499867 for 
> [Condorcet]//[ER-Borda] ties: 133
> 
>      14: Raynaud
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  107385    0.21477
> Compromise, no burial:  131     0.000262
> Burial and compromise:  2576    0.005152
> Two-sided:              10936    0.021872
> Other coalition strats: 45583    0.091166
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  166611    0.333222
> 
> Worked in 166611 (0.3326, 0.3339) out of 500000 for 
> Eliminate-[Minmax(wv)]/fd ties: 0
> 
>      15: *Smith//DSC
> Ties: 0.001368 (684)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  141718    0.283824
> Compromise, no burial:  1246    0.00249541
> Burial and compromise:  674     0.00134985
> Two-sided:              62796    0.125764
> Other coalition strats: 1565    0.00313429
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  207999    0.416568
> 
> Worked in 207999 (0.4159, 0.4173) out of 499316 for [Smith]//[DSC] ties: 
> 684
> 
>      16: Ranked Pairs
> Ties: 0 (0)
> Of the non-ties:
> 
> Burial, no compromise:  128541    0.257082
> Compromise, no burial:  759     0.001518
> Burial and compromise:  1901    0.003802
> Two-sided:              27418    0.054836
> Other coalition strats: 1846    0.003692
> ==========================================
> Manipulable elections:  160465    0.32093
> 
> Worked in 160465 (0.3203, 0.3216) out of 500000 for Ranked Pairs(wv) 
> ties: 0
> 
> That should be right.
> 
> -km
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