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There should be a ranked or Condorcet vote and the winner should be enacted. It should have happened a year ago at least. I agree, but how many legislatures ar

There should be a ranked or Condorcet vote and the winner should be enacted. It should have happened a year ago at least. I agree, but how many legislatures around the world actually work like that? Certainly not the UK or USA. Who knows, maybe this fiasco will spur on voting reform in the UK parliament! Apparently they already use STV for committee positions, so it’s not unthinkable. I thought Wednesday’s use of approval voting in the main House was a very promising step in the right direction.

alkonaut 8y ago
Any normal legislature should be able to say OK we are stuck who is in favor of getting out of this by unconventional means? The unconventional means is “we will find an option by some informal process such as Condorcet, and all representatives that agree this process is a good idea agree to later support the winning option in the formal vote”. So it’s enough to find a majority for the method/process, and the selection of options to use. There is no need for a majority for a single option. So at no point would there be anything but normal yes/no votes with normal majority requirement in the legal sense. It’s a bit like how some US states can agree to put their electoral college votes to the majority winner.
- iainmerrick 8y ago
  I agree in principle but I still think you’re being over-optimistic and glossing over details. The bar is (sadly) very low for people to say “this voting system is too complicated, nobody will understand it!” You say “Condorcet” as if that’s a complete solution, but there could be a preference cycle with no way to break it. You’d need to pick a specific method, like STV, and every method has flaws. This is a very intense situation, where many people feel like they’re under intense pressure, with very short deadlines. On top of that, it’s being done in public, and everybody is juggling multiple concerns (doing the right thing in the short term versus long term, helping the country, helping their party... Being seen to help their country and/or party, protecting their own careers, etc etc) Overall I think it’d be very difficult and risky for Parliament to adopt even a slightly novel voting system at the last minute, even to resolve a major crisis.

alkonaut 8y ago

Any normal legislature should be able to say OK we are stuck who is in favor of getting out of this by unconventional means? The unconventional means is “we will find an option by some informal process such as Condorcet, and all representatives that agree this process is a good idea agree to later support the winning option in the formal vote”. So it’s enough to find a majority for the method/process, and the selection of options to use. There is no need for a majority for a single option. So at no point would there be anything but normal yes/no votes with normal majority requirement in the legal sense. It’s a bit like how some US states can agree to put their electoral college votes to the majority winner.

iainmerrick 8y ago
I agree in principle but I still think you’re being over-optimistic and glossing over details. The bar is (sadly) very low for people to say “this voting system is too complicated, nobody will understand it!” You say “Condorcet” as if that’s a complete solution, but there could be a preference cycle with no way to break it. You’d need to pick a specific method, like STV, and every method has flaws. This is a very intense situation, where many people feel like they’re under intense pressure, with very short deadlines. On top of that, it’s being done in public, and everybody is juggling multiple concerns (doing the right thing in the short term versus long term, helping the country, helping their party... Being seen to help their country and/or party, protecting their own careers, etc etc) Overall I think it’d be very difficult and risky for Parliament to adopt even a slightly novel voting system at the last minute, even to resolve a major crisis.