<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>The thing about SODA is that it's harder to "get" than Approval Voting. I haven't exactly read through all the posts on it here thoroughly but I've looked at the page - <A href="http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Simple_Optionally-Delegated_Approval">http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/Simple_Optionally-Delegated_Approval</A> - and I do find myself thinking "What?" All of its advantages over other systems may be within the posts on this board, but they are not that clear to me from reading the article. The method is explained and also the criteria it satisfies but I'm not happy that I've been convinced why it works.</DIV>
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<DIV>Why are the votes only delegable if you bullet vote (or is that obvious)? Also it seems like a lot of work for just the people who bullet vote (and also allow delegation). Do we know in practice what proportion of people do bullet vote in Approval Voting? Might SODA reduce this number anyway?</DIV>
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<DIV>From the page: "If any candidate has an absolute majority at this point, or cannot possibly be beaten by any other candidate using the delegable votes and candidate rankings available, then they win immediately." Does absolute majority just mean over 50%? But with Approval 50% isn't a particular threshold. You can get over 50% and still be beaten. Maybe I'm just unclear on "absolute majority", but it's been put as distinct from "cannot possibly be beaten by any other candidate using the delegable votes and candidate rankings available".</DIV>
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<DIV>And it still seems strange to me that candidates pre-declare their delegation order but then still get to negotiate. Yes, there's an explanation, but I'm not really sure I get it. "The system as it stands allows them to see, after the votes are counted, which of them deserves to win. That one will not delegate their votes, and the other one (of necessity) will." Couldn't there be a way in the system to decide who deserves to win (e.g. based on who would get more votes after the delegation or who had more to start with)? </DIV>
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<DIV>Also, just out of interest, is there a multi-winner version?<BR></DIV>
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<B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Andy Jennings <elections@jenningsstory.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Cc:</SPAN></B> election-methods@lists.electorama.com<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Fri, 8 July, 2011 20:57:52<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [EM] Has this idea been considered?<BR></FONT><BR>On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 3:56 AM, Jameson Quinn <SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:jameson.quinn@gmail.com" rel=nofollow target=_blank ymailto="mailto:jameson.quinn@gmail.com">jameson.quinn@gmail.com</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
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<DIV>So, I guess the question is: is there anyone who would support Approval but not SODA? Respond in text. Also, I made a poll on betterpolls - go vote. <A href="http://betterpolls.com/v/1425" rel=nofollow target=_blank>http://betterpolls.com/v/1425</A></DIV></DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>Wow, that results page is hard to read when the poll is about voting systems and the results are analyzed with lots of different voting methods. Very "meta".</DIV>
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<DIV>In any case, I went and voted.</DIV>
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<DIV>I was pretty hard on SODA. Even though I like where it's going, I, like Kristofer, don't think it's been analyzed enough to become our endorsed system at this point.</DIV>
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<DIV>Let's keep working on it...</DIV>
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<DIV>Andy</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></div></body></html>