Evaluating Voting Methods
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Voters' Pamphlet
Washington Elections Division 2925 NE Aloclek Drive, Suite 170 Hillsboro, OR 97124-7523 County www.co.washington.or.us voters’ pamphlet VOTE-BY-MAIL PRIMARY ELECTION May 19, 2020 To be counted, voted ballots must be in our office by 8:00 p.m. on May 19, 2020 ATTENTION This is your county voters’ pamphlet. Washington County Elections prints information as submitted. We do not Washington County correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, errors or Board of County inaccurate information. All information contained in this Commissioners county pamphlet has been assembled and printed by Rich Hobernicht, County Clerk-Ex Officio, Director Washington County Assessment & Taxation. Kathryn Harrington, Chair Dick Schouten, District 1 Pam Treece, District 2 Roy Rogers, District 3 Dear Voter: Jerry Willey, District 4 This pamphlet contains information for several districts and there may be candidates/measures included that are not on your ballot. If you have any questions, call 503-846-5800. WC-1 Washington County Sheriff Sheriff Red Pat Wortham Garrett Occupation: Sheriff’s Sergeant, Occupation: Sheriff Washington County Occupational Background: Occupational Background: WCSO; patrol deputy, investigator, Sheriff’s Office since 2004; Drug sergeant, lieutenant, division com- Treatment Counselor, Tualatin Valley mander, chief deputy, undersheriff. Mental Health; Ranked #1 on promotional list for Lieutenant, 2015 Educational Background: Oregon State University, Spanish, Educational Background: BA, Bachelors; Portland State University, cum laude, Pacific -
Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1
1 Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1 Richard B. Darlington Cornell University Abstract For decades, the minimax voting system was well known to experts on voting systems, but was not widely considered to be one of the best systems. But in recent years, two important experts, Nicolaus Tideman and Andrew Myers, have both recognized minimax as one of the best systems. I agree with that. This paper presents my own reasons for preferring minimax. The paper explicitly discusses about 20 systems. Comments invited. [email protected] Copyright Richard B. Darlington May be distributed free for non-commercial purposes Keywords Voting system Condorcet Minimax 1. Many thanks to Nicolaus Tideman, Andrew Myers, Sharon Weinberg, Eduardo Marchena, my wife Betsy Darlington, and my daughter Lois Darlington, all of whom contributed many valuable suggestions. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction and summary 3 2. The variety of voting systems 4 3. Some electoral criteria violated by minimax’s competitors 6 Monotonicity 7 Strategic voting 7 Completeness 7 Simplicity 8 Ease of voting 8 Resistance to vote-splitting and spoiling 8 Straddling 8 Condorcet consistency (CC) 8 4. Dismissing eight criteria violated by minimax 9 4.1 The absolute loser, Condorcet loser, and preference inversion criteria 9 4.2 Three anti-manipulation criteria 10 4.3 SCC/IIA 11 4.4 Multiple districts 12 5. Simulation studies on voting systems 13 5.1. Why our computer simulations use spatial models of voter behavior 13 5.2 Four computer simulations 15 5.2.1 Features and purposes of the studies 15 5.2.2 Further description of the studies 16 5.2.3 Results and discussion 18 6. -
Section 10 Correspondence
SECTION 10 CORRESPONDENCE SECTION 10: CORRESPONDENCE Yvonne Galletta Subject: FW: Expansion of my September 22nd comments to the Santa Clara Charter Review Committee Attachments: Portland-Mayorai-Sample-Ballot.pdf Portland-Mayora !-Sample-Ballot. .. ---- - Original Message----- From: Steve Chessin (mailto:steve.chessin®gmail .com] On Behalf Of Steve Chessin Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 9:43 PM To: Manager Cc: Cl erk Subject: Expansion of my September 22nd comments to t he Santa Clara Charter Review Committee To the members of the Charter Review Committee and supporting City Staff: I would like to expand on the comments I made at the September 22nd Charter Review Committee (CRC) meeting. I made four points, which I expand on here. 1. The minutes of the September 1st meeting contain this sentenc~ under item 7, \•/here it is reporting on my presentation to the CRC: "He referred to a book, 'To Keep Or Change First Past The Post? The Politics of Electoral Reform ' as a good reference . " That is not the book I referred to . In fact, I am not familiar with that book, and had not heard of it until I read its title in the minutes . I do not know if it will be useful to you or not . The books I did refer to are these: Amy , Doug; "Behind the Ballot Box: A Citizen's Guide t o Voting Systems"; Praeger Publishing; Westport, Connecticut; 2 000. It is available at http: //\·Mw. mtholyoke. edu/acad/polit/damy/OrderDesk/behind_ the_ballot_box . htm Reynolds, Andrew, and Reilly, Ben; "The International IDEA Handbook of Electoral System Design"; International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assis tance; Sweden; 1997. -
Governance in Decentralized Networks
Governance in decentralized networks Risto Karjalainen* May 21, 2020 Abstract. Effective, legitimate and transparent governance is paramount for the long-term viability of decentralized networks. If the aim is to design such a governance model, it is useful to be aware of the history of decision making paradigms and the relevant previous research. Towards such ends, this paper is a survey of different governance models, the thinking behind such models, and new tools and structures which are made possible by decentralized blockchain technology. Governance mechanisms in the wider civil society are reviewed, including structures and processes in private and non-profit governance, open-source development, and self-managed organisations. The alternative ways to aggregate preferences, resolve conflicts, and manage resources in the decentralized space are explored, including the possibility of encoding governance rules as automatically executed computer programs where humans or other entities interact via a protocol. Keywords: Blockchain technology, decentralization, decentralized autonomous organizations, distributed ledger technology, governance, peer-to-peer networks, smart contracts. 1. Introduction This paper is a survey of governance models in decentralized networks, and specifically in networks which make use of blockchain technology. There are good reasons why governance in decentralized networks is a topic of considerable interest at present. Some of these reasons are ideological. We live in an era where detailed information about private individuals is being collected and traded, in many cases without the knowledge or consent of the individuals involved. Decentralized technology is seen as a tool which can help protect people against invasions of privacy. Decentralization can also be viewed as a reaction against the overreach by state and industry. -
Legislature by Lot: Envisioning Sortition Within a Bicameral System
PASXXX10.1177/0032329218789886Politics & SocietyGastil and Wright 789886research-article2018 Special Issue Article Politics & Society 2018, Vol. 46(3) 303 –330 Legislature by Lot: Envisioning © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: Sortition within a Bicameral sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329218789886DOI: 10.1177/0032329218789886 System* journals.sagepub.com/home/pas John Gastil Pennsylvania State University Erik Olin Wright University of Wisconsin–Madison Abstract In this article, we review the intrinsic democratic flaws in electoral representation, lay out a set of principles that should guide the construction of a sortition chamber, and argue for the virtue of a bicameral system that combines sortition and elections. We show how sortition could prove inclusive, give citizens greater control of the political agenda, and make their participation more deliberative and influential. We consider various design challenges, such as the sampling method, legislative training, and deliberative procedures. We explain why pairing sortition with an elected chamber could enhance its virtues while dampening its potential vices. In our conclusion, we identify ideal settings for experimenting with sortition. Keywords bicameral legislatures, deliberation, democratic theory, elections, minipublics, participation, political equality, sortition Corresponding Author: John Gastil, Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 232 Sparks Bldg., University Park, PA 16802, USA. Email: [email protected] *This special issue of Politics & Society titled “Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance” features a preface, an introductory anchor essay and postscript, and six articles that were presented as part of a workshop held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, September 2017, organized by John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright. -
Another Consideration in Minority Vote Dilution Remedies: Rent
Another C onsideration in Minority Vote Dilution Remedies : Rent -Seeking ALAN LOCKARD St. Lawrence University In some areas of the United States, racial and ethnic minorities have been effectively excluded from the democratic process by a variety of means, including electoral laws. In some instances, the Courts have sought to remedy this problem by imposing alternative voting methods, such as cumulative voting. I examine several voting methods with regard to their sensitivity to rent-seeking. Methods which are less sensitive to rent-seeking are preferred because they involve less social waste, and are less likely to be co- opted by special interest groups. I find that proportional representation methods, rather than semi- proportional ones, such as cumulative voting, are relatively insensitive to rent-seeking efforts, and thus preferable. I also suggest that an even less sensitive method, the proportional lottery, may be appropriate for use within deliberative bodies, where proportional representation is inapplicable and minority vote dilution otherwise remains an intractable problem. 1. INTRODUCTION When President Clinton nominated Lani Guinier to serve in the Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, an opportunity was created for an extremely valuable public debate on the merits of alternative voting methods as solutions to vote dilution problems in the United States. After Prof. Guinier’s positions were grossly mischaracterized in the press,1 the President withdrew her nomination without permitting such a public debate to take place.2 These issues have been discussed in academic circles,3 however, 1 Bolick (1993) charges Guinier with advocating “a complex racial spoils system.” 2 Guinier (1998) recounts her experiences in this process. -
Democracy Lost: a Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries
Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries Election Justice USA | ElectionJusticeUSA.org | [email protected] Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL........................................................................................................2 A. ABOUT ELECTION JUSTICE USA...............................................................................................2 B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................................................................................2 C. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................7 II. SUMMARY OF DIRECT EVIDENCE FOR ELECTION FRAUD, VOTER SUPPRESSION, AND OTHER IRREGULARITIES.......................................................................................................7 A. VOTER SUPPRESSION..................................................................................................................7 B. REGISTRATION TAMPERING......................................................................................................8 C. ILLEGAL VOTER PURGING.........................................................................................................8 D. EVIDENCE OF FRAUDULENT OR ERRONEOUS VOTING MACHINE TALLIES.................9 E. MISCELLANEOUS........................................................................................................................10 F. ESTIMATE OF PLEDGED DELEGATES AFFECTED................................................................11 -
2016 US Presidential Election Herrade Igersheim, François Durand, Aaron Hamlin, Jean-François Laslier
Comparing Voting Methods: 2016 US Presidential Election Herrade Igersheim, François Durand, Aaron Hamlin, Jean-François Laslier To cite this version: Herrade Igersheim, François Durand, Aaron Hamlin, Jean-François Laslier. Comparing Voting Meth- ods: 2016 US Presidential Election. 2018. halshs-01972097 HAL Id: halshs-01972097 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01972097 Preprint submitted on 7 Jan 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. WORKING PAPER N° 2018 – 55 Comparing Voting Methods: 2016 US Presidential Election Herrade Igersheim François Durand Aaron Hamlin Jean-François Laslier JEL Codes: D72, C93 Keywords : Approval voting, range voting, instant runoff, strategic voting, US Presidential election PARIS-JOURDAN SCIENCES ECONOMIQUES 48, BD JOURDAN – E.N.S. – 75014 PARIS TÉL. : 33(0) 1 80 52 16 00= www.pse.ens.fr CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE – ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES ÉCOLE DES PONTS PARISTECH – ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE AGRONOMIQUE – UNIVERSITE PARIS 1 Comparing Voting Methods: 2016 US Presidential Election Herrade Igersheim☦ François Durand* Aaron Hamlin✝ Jean-François Laslier§ November, 20, 2018 Abstract. Before the 2016 US presidential elections, more than 2,000 participants participated to a survey in which they were asked their opinions about the candidates, and were also asked to vote according to different alternative voting rules, in addition to plurality: approval voting, range voting, and instant runoff voting. -
If You Like the Alternative Vote (Aka the Instant Runoff)
Electoral Studies 23 (2004) 641–659 www.elsevier.com/locate/electstud If you like the alternative vote (a.k.a. the instant runoff), then you ought to know about the Coombs rule Bernard Grofman a,Ã, Scott L. Feld b a Department of Political Science and Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA b Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University,Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA Received 1 July2003 Abstract We consider four factors relevant to picking a voting rule to be used to select a single candidate from among a set of choices: (1) avoidance of Condorcet losers, (2) choice of Condorcet winners, (3) resistance to manipulabilityvia strategic voting, (4) simplicity. However, we do not tryto evaluate all voting rules that might be used to select a single alternative. Rather, our focus is restricted to a comparison between a rule which, under the name ‘instant runoff,’ has recentlybeen pushed byelectoral reformers in the US to replace plurality-based elections, and which has been advocated for use in plural societies as a means of mitigating ethnic conflict; and another similar rule, the ‘Coombs rule.’ In both rules, voters are required to rank order candidates. Using the instant runoff, the candidate with the fewest first place votes is eliminated; while under the Coombs rule, the candidate with the most last place votes is eliminated. The instant runoff is familiar to electoral sys- tem specialists under the name ‘alternative vote’ (i.e., the single transferable vote restricted to choice of a single candidate). The Coombs rule has gone virtuallyunmentioned in the electoral systems literature (see, however, Chamberlin et al., 1984). -
Landry, Celeste
HB 5404: Study Ranked-Choice Voting in CT, Committee on Government Administration and Elections March 4, 2020 testimony by Celeste Landry, 745 University Ave, Boulder, CO 80302 Bio: I have been researching voting methods since 2012 and have given a variety of Voting Methods presentations including at the 2018 LWVUS convention, the 2019 Free and Equal Electoral Reform Symposium and the 2020 CO Dept of State Alternative Voting Method Stakeholder Group meeting. Four Proposed Amendments: Amendments #1 and #2 below address language in the current text, but Amendments #3 and #4 provide for better and broader resolutions to the bill’s limitations. Issue #1. The description of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in HB5404 is too limited. For instance, the 2018 Maine Congressional District 2 election would NOT fit the definition below: 6 are defeated and until one candidate receives over fifty per cent of the 7 votes cast, and (3) the candidate receiving over fifty per cent of the votes 8 cast is deemed to have been elected to such office. Such study shall Example: The Maine CD2 winner, Jared Golden, did NOT receive over 50% of the votes cast (144,813 out of 289,624). More people preferred Golden’s opponents to Golden. In the last round, Golden received over 50% of the votes if you only count the non-exhausted ballots. The definition of RCV in the bill effectively claims that more than two thousand cast votes were actually not cast! 2018 Maine CD2 election results: https://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/results/results18.html#Nov6 Resolution: The definition should read 6 are defeated and until one candidate receives over fifty per cent of the 7 votes cast on non-exhausted ballots, and (3) the candidate receiving over fifty per cent of the votes 8 cast on non-exhausted ballots is deemed to have been elected to such office. -
Cumulative Voting in the United States Richard H
University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 1995 | Issue 1 Article 10 Cumulative Voting in the United States Richard H. Pildes [email protected] Kristen A. Donoghue [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Recommended Citation Pildes, Richard H. and Donoghue, Kristen A. () "Cumulative Voting in the United States," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1995: Iss. 1, Article 10. Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1995/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cumulative Voting in the United States Richard H. Pildest and Kristen A. Donoghuett Recent Supreme Court decisions involving North Carolina and Georgia cast substantial (if ambiguous) doubt on the contin- ued constitutionality of race-conscious districting.1 For the previ- ous fifteen years, since the passage of the significant 1982 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act ("VRA"), 2 race-conscious districting has emerged as the principal tool for ensuring black political representation in circumstances in which voting is polarized along racial lines. Now, however, the Court has de- clared that strict constitutional scrutiny must be applied whenev- er race is "the predominant factor motivating the legislature's decision to place a significant number of voters within or without a particular district."3 The precise scope of this enigmatic rule4 will remain uncertain until the Court decides future cases, but the rule undoubtedly puts the intentional creation of black- majority election districts on the defensive. -
Vote Splitting
Vote Splitting: Who benefits from better The Root of Electoral Evils voting methods? Our current choose-one Plurality Voting method allows voters to express an opinion about only one candidate. This works fine—when there are only two candidates. Add a third, and you get vote splitting: the most similar candidates split their common supporters’ votes, and can lose to another less preferred Major-party supporters candidate—possibly even the least preferred! • Better primaries, without vote The Vote-Splitting Cycle What Makes a Good Voting Method splitting and spoilers A good voting method has several essential Fear of being a “spoiler” deters many candidates • Less negative campaigning, qualities, starting with the fundamental two: from entering the race, denying voters a real choice. more post-primary unity Often enough more candidates run anyway, forcing Accuracy and Simplicity. Over the expected voters to play a game: guessing how other voters range of election scenarios, the voting method • No minor-party spoilers will vote. For this they consider candidates’ “viabilty” must produce results that accurately reflect the — not only their qualifications, but their popularity, will of the electorate, at an acceptable logistical Minor-party supporters funding, and media support. Campaign money cost. To produce such results, we need three more becomes necessary not just to make candidates qualities: Expressiveness, Sincerity, and Equality. • Other parties see minor-party candidates as allies, not spoilers known, but to signal that they are serious. Facing Voters must be able and willing to express a the “wasted-vote dilemma,” many voters abandon reasonably full and sincere opinion, and the • Results reflect a party’s true their favorite candidates for the few who seem to presence of similar candidates should not hurt or support have the best chances — the bandwagon effect.