[Lnc-business] commentary on Scottish STV

[Alicia Mattson]

This system doesn't require a majority, but it does require hitting a
particular threshold, in this case that is 2.

With only 12 or 13 ballots cast, only 6 candidates could possibly ever
achieve 2.

-Alicia


On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 2:00 AM Caryn Ann Harlos <caryn.ann.harlos at lp.org>
wrote:

> This is fantastic - and exactly the kind of analysis we need.  It is much
> different to talk about it, and then to do it, which is why I am eager for
> us to try things.
>
> Though I think each of these will elect 9 since they don't require
> majority.  If we require majority, then certainly I think 3-4 is pretty
> accurate.
>
> What we will be able to do now with this data is run it through many
> systems and parameters.  I think it will be eye-opening.
>
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 2:32 AM Alicia Mattson via Lnc-business <
> lnc-business at hq.lp.org> wrote:
>
>> I have a number of comments I wish to make about the Scottish STV voting
>> system, but I don't have time to write it all up this evening.  I will
>> start with these comments and add more details to these thoughts later.
>>
>> It is one thing to read the theory and rules for a voting system on a
>> webpage, but it's another thing to print out the paper ballots and enact
>> the process yourself to see the effects of each step.  Last night, I took
>> the 7 ballots cast up to that point, printed them out on paper, and put
>> them in piles on the floor to manually experience how it works.
>>
>> It didn't take long before my eyes got wide.  Then a little later my jaw
>> dropped as I realized more and more implications of the process.  When I
>> was done, I paced around the living room in a bit of a rant as I put my
>> realizations into words.
>>
>> Clearly, this voting system was envisioned for situations in which the
>> number of ballots being cast VASTLY outnumbers (by orders of magnitude)
>> both the number of seats being filled and also the number of candidates.
>>
>> In our case, however, if everyone had voted it would have been 17 ballots
>> cast to choose from more than 40 candidates to fill 9 seats.  I only saw
>> ballots from 12 people on one election and 13 on the other, making the
>> ratios even worse.  This seems to be in the range of worst-case-scenario
>> for this voting system.
>>
>> With these ratios, the process devolves into essentially a casino game of
>> chance necessitating random candidate eliminations early in the process.
>> After the first round of vote distributions, we might as well just tell
>> the
>> candidates to play Russian roulette...or for fewer dead bodies we could
>> just draw names out of a hat.
>>
>> If I correctly understand the process, then it's mathematically impossible
>> for the number of ballots cast in these two elections to elect more than 6
>> candidates to each committee.  Looking at the vote distribution, we'll
>> elect at least 3 but no more than 6, depending on the outcome of some
>> random selections, so we're in for re-balloting anyway.
>>
>> More specifics later...
>>
>> -Alicia
>>
>
>
> --
>
> *  In Liberty,*
>
> *Libertarian Party and Libertarian National Committee Secretary *- Caryn.Ann.
> Harlos at LP.org <Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org> or Secretary at LP.org.
> *Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee* - LPedia at LP.org
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