3 ms·

Smart Voting Simulator

2 points by dane-pgp 6y ago

dane-pgp 6y ago
"Based off Work by Nicky Case", in particular: https://ncase.me/ballot/ https://ncase.me/ballot/
dane-pgp 6y ago
I think it's good for voters to learn about alternative voting systems so that they can push for reforms, but I also think that the mathematical differences between non-FPTP systems are less important than the other factors that distinguish them. For example, FPTP has advantages in terms of being easy to count with paper ballots (avoiding the problem of voting machines that citizens can't inspect), and being easy for the voter to mark their ballot. Other important dimensions to consider for alternative voting systems are how easily opponents of reforms will be able to campaign against the change[0][1], and whether the reform, if adopted, might later be abandoned[2], resulting in one step forwards and two steps back. With that in mind, the best strategy for reform might be to "tweak" the counting process of FPTP, but keeping the same ballots and districts. The tweak would be that after the votes for each candidate are totalled, the candidate with the lowest number of votes gets to assign their votes to another candidate, and repeating this process until one candidate has a majority. This is such a small change (and, it could be claimed, an obvious increase in fairness, because fewer votes are "wasted") that a party could argue that it doesn't require a referendum to provide a specific mandate for it, assuming it was in their manifesto. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternative_Vote_referendum#Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternativ... [1] https://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/mike-smyth-liberals-declare-all-out-war-on-proportional-representation https://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/mike-smyth-libera... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Burlington_mayoral_election#Repeal_of_IRV_in_Burlington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Burlington_mayoral_electi...

2 points by dane-pgp 6y ago

"Based off Work by Nicky Case", in particular: https://ncase.me/ballot/ https://ncase.me/ballot/

I think it's good for voters to learn about alternative voting systems so that they can push for reforms, but I also think that the mathematical differences between non-FPTP systems are less important than the other factors that distinguish them. For example, FPTP has advantages in terms of being easy to count with paper ballots (avoiding the problem of voting machines that citizens can't inspect), and being easy for the voter to mark their ballot. Other important dimensions to consider for alternative voting systems are how easily opponents of reforms will be able to campaign against the change[0][1], and whether the reform, if adopted, might later be abandoned[2], resulting in one step forwards and two steps back. With that in mind, the best strategy for reform might be to "tweak" the counting process of FPTP, but keeping the same ballots and districts. The tweak would be that after the votes for each candidate are totalled, the candidate with the lowest number of votes gets to assign their votes to another candidate, and repeating this process until one candidate has a majority. This is such a small change (and, it could be claimed, an obvious increase in fairness, because fewer votes are "wasted") that a party could argue that it doesn't require a referendum to provide a specific mandate for it, assuming it was in their manifesto. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternative_Vote_referendum#Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternativ... [1] https://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/mike-smyth-liberals-declare-all-out-war-on-proportional-representation https://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/mike-smyth-libera... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Burlington_mayoral_election#Repeal_of_IRV_in_Burlington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Burlington_mayoral_electi...