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Ranked choice voting seems far easier to me. In quadratic the total number of votes you have depends on the distribution. Very hard for innumerate people to und

Ranked choice voting seems far easier to me. In quadratic the total number of votes you have depends on the distribution. Very hard for innumerate people to understand. Ranked choice is just ranking your preferences. You don’t need to understand the underlying math

tablespoon 5y ago
> In quadratic the total number of votes you have depends on the distribution. Very hard for innumerate people to understand. But it's something they'll encounter and have to understand to fill out the vote paper (which I imagine would look something like a simple math worksheet). > Ranked choice is just ranking your preferences. You don’t need to understand the underlying math Not to vote, but the problem I have it is in the end, "the algorithm" spits out who wins, and that's going to be totally opaque to most people. On the other hand, pretty much anyone can easily figure out "which number is biggest."
- oneoff786 5y ago
  You can easily fill out a quadratic worksheet incorrectly though. Ranked choice is just whoever gets the most points win. I don’t think that’s too difficult to follow personally.
- ethanbond 5y ago
  Ranked choice is only confusing if you just handwave and show the final result. Put the thing on TV showing each and every round, with boxes moving up the list and off the list, and it’ll be completely obvious how it works. It’s befuddling that you think it’s actually better to put the complexity on the ballot for each individual voter to wrangle with in the complete privacy of a voting booth.
ttfkam 5y ago
Approval voting always struck me as the best way forward, though I am certainly no elections expert. Doesn't require ballot changes. Doesn't require anyone change their voting style or keep track of which is 1, 2, etc. Obvious simplicity where you vote for whoever would be acceptable to you. Whoever is the most acceptable to the greatest number of people gets elected. Really good at weeding out extremists and favoring folks that can appeal to the biggest tent.
cma 5y ago
Ranked choice is not that simple, and the math doesn't mean what the words say because you don't have to rank your choices honestly. Say you have one guy you want most, A, a second much less, B, and a third abhorrent, C. You can rank the abhorrent guy above B in order to lower B's rank even more, with the assumption that most people aren't going to rank C high. People in A and B camps can both try this strategy and C, who only a small minority actually wants as first choice ends up winning.
- antifa 5y ago
  I don't think this criticism makes sense, you're literally already intended to rank your least desired candidates lowest.
  - cma 5y ago
    What you are intended to do is not the same as what people do. Strategic voting happens, arrow's impossibility theorem says there is no one way that solves all the problems.

tablespoon 5y ago

> In quadratic the total number of votes you have depends on the distribution. Very hard for innumerate people to understand. But it's something they'll encounter and have to understand to fill out the vote paper (which I imagine would look something like a simple math worksheet). > Ranked choice is just ranking your preferences. You don’t need to understand the underlying math Not to vote, but the problem I have it is in the end, "the algorithm" spits out who wins, and that's going to be totally opaque to most people. On the other hand, pretty much anyone can easily figure out "which number is biggest."

oneoff786 5y ago
You can easily fill out a quadratic worksheet incorrectly though. Ranked choice is just whoever gets the most points win. I don’t think that’s too difficult to follow personally.
ethanbond 5y ago
Ranked choice is only confusing if you just handwave and show the final result. Put the thing on TV showing each and every round, with boxes moving up the list and off the list, and it’ll be completely obvious how it works. It’s befuddling that you think it’s actually better to put the complexity on the ballot for each individual voter to wrangle with in the complete privacy of a voting booth.

ttfkam 5y ago

Approval voting always struck me as the best way forward, though I am certainly no elections expert. Doesn't require ballot changes. Doesn't require anyone change their voting style or keep track of which is 1, 2, etc. Obvious simplicity where you vote for whoever would be acceptable to you. Whoever is the most acceptable to the greatest number of people gets elected. Really good at weeding out extremists and favoring folks that can appeal to the biggest tent.

cma 5y ago

Ranked choice is not that simple, and the math doesn't mean what the words say because you don't have to rank your choices honestly. Say you have one guy you want most, A, a second much less, B, and a third abhorrent, C. You can rank the abhorrent guy above B in order to lower B's rank even more, with the assumption that most people aren't going to rank C high. People in A and B camps can both try this strategy and C, who only a small minority actually wants as first choice ends up winning.

antifa 5y ago
I don't think this criticism makes sense, you're literally already intended to rank your least desired candidates lowest.
- cma 5y ago
  What you are intended to do is not the same as what people do. Strategic voting happens, arrow's impossibility theorem says there is no one way that solves all the problems.