Regarding the constituencies, the 19-seat one is elected 10 seats one semester, 9 seats the other. The other multi-seat constituencies are similarly divided. I would say that none of these can be combined for a simple reason - they do represent a clear group (each individual school/college within the University) as opposed to being a territorial district. Additionally, each such group has its OWN student government - which makes them somewhat resemble "states". Thus, combining the single-seat districts would make about as much sense as combining several of the one seat at-large Congressional districts for small
U.S. states for STV purposes. Likewise, there is no logical subdivision for the 19-seat grouping - any such division would be an arbitrary new construction. One might be able to split based on class status or on off-campus/on-campus residency, but such designations tend to change much more than school/college, leaving some students who run for the seat they are eligible for becoming ineligible to hold it the next semester. Regarding major party domination of such districts - often these seats are not even contested by the "parties", and half of them are won with a few votes by independent write-ins.
<br><br>This does present a somewhat weird situation as far as PR and elections, though it seems as if the best solution would be to leave the division of representatives alone. However, the division between two elections is something to consider. According to what people think in here, it seems that this may be good for the 19-seat constituency. However, it seems like it may not be for the others (especially the 2 and 3-seat constituencies, but also the 6 and 7 seat). The problem, though, with doing this (combining some multi-seat elections and dividing others) is that each election is contested by only half the campus (whereas now, each election is contested by 90% of students - everyone minus the 1-seaters not up for election). Thus, advertising and getting turnout becomes more of a problem.
<br><br>Any comments on this? As far as single-winner goes, I see IRV as being the likely choice with STV used in multi-winner due to the fact that it would reduce the amount of explaining (as opposed to doing something like Condorcet). As far as approval, I really don't see that working very well - only voters who think their favorite has NO CHANCE to win would vote for more than one. In this case, it seems like IRV is better.
<br><br>Tim<br><br>P.S. Under my "pro wrestler" example, I was assuming that the voter would, under a range system, give the pro wrestler a 3 or a 2 out of 10, except for those who prefer them first. In this case, both IRV and Range would not elect this candidate.
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