Image from https://reason.com/2020/05/18/vermin-supreme-says-this-time-hes-serious/ While analyzing some approval voting election results, I came across a problem that I attributed at least partially to "junk candidates": candidates who, whether due to their radical political views, dearth of charisma, or general weirdness, can't realistically achieve substantial support. When approval elections featured lots of candidates, voters didn't vote for… Continue reading Four types of “junk” candidates and some thoughts on how to model them
Tag: voting
The NBA MVP voting system is actually good. Voter fatigue might make it better.
The NBA uses a variation of what is called a Borda Count voting system to select its MVPs, where voters (100 American and Canadian media members who aren't affiliated with teams) are asked to rank their top MVP candidates, and then those candidates are given points based on where they are ranked on each ballot.… Continue reading The NBA MVP voting system is actually good. Voter fatigue might make it better.
How to be a Smart Approval Voting Voter: An Approver’s Guide
Approval voting offers a simple solution to one of the most annoying problems in the Pick one #link voting system we use in most US elections: If you're ever stuck deciding whether to vote for one candidate or another, you can just vote for both. Do you like Al Gore and Ralph Nader? Vote for… Continue reading How to be a Smart Approval Voting Voter: An Approver’s Guide
How many candidates should you vote for in an Approval voting election?
Approval Voting offers a simple voting reform: instead of voting for just one candidate in an election, voters can vote for however many they like. This is a pretty obvious fix to a fairly common voting problem; you don't have to choose between voting for the candidate you really love who has little chance of… Continue reading How many candidates should you vote for in an Approval voting election?
How Approving should Approval Voting Voters Be?
Ranked Choice and Approval Voting have emerged as the two leading alternative voting systems being advocated in the U.S. I've looked a bit at how Ranked Choice might perform, particularly in a polarized political climate, and found that, though it usually is better at picking broadly agreeable candidates than the Plurality system used in most… Continue reading How Approving should Approval Voting Voters Be?
Borda Count Doesn’t Have to Care whether You Complete Your Ballot
Can we make Borda Count resilient against strategic voting? Yes. Let's see how it works.
Which Voting System Could be Best for Our Polarized Politics?
What voting system should we turn to in this partisan moment? The answer might depend on what we want our elections to do.
Voting on Who Gets the Ventilator
The Situation: Limited Resources There is only one ventilator -- or liver, or hospital bed, or any other potentially life-saving resource -- at your hospital, but many people need it and are eligible for it. You are part of a group that must decide who gets the ventilator. You all agree about what kinds of… Continue reading Voting on Who Gets the Ventilator
Is Ranked Choice Voting the Hero We Need? (Part 2)
What if the Voters Want What Voters Actually Want? In our first look into this topic, we used a simple model of voters and candidates to find some mixed results for Ranked Choice voting. It performed better than the Plurality system that dominates US elections, but it was outclassed by its systems and didn't always… Continue reading Is Ranked Choice Voting the Hero We Need? (Part 2)
Is Ranked Choice Voting the Hero We Need? (Part 1)
Ranked Choice voting is having a bit of a moment in the public consciousness -- at least on the very handicapped scale of voting systems. It promises to avoid some of the unsavory outcomes that occur in the "First Past the Post" Plurality system used in the vast majority of U.S. elections by allowing voters… Continue reading Is Ranked Choice Voting the Hero We Need? (Part 1)