Gourt > Society > Politics > Campaigns and Elections > Voting Systems (2)
A voting system is a means of choosing between a number of options, based on the input of a number of voters. Voting is perhaps best known for its use in elections, where political candidates are selected for public office. Voting can also be used to award prizes, to select between different plans of action, or by a computer program to determine a solution to a complex problem. Voting can be contrasted with consensus decision making.
A voting system consists of the rules for how voters express their desires, and how these desires are aggregated to yield a final result. The study of formally defined voting systems is called voting theory, a subfield of political science, economics or mathematics. Voting theory began in the 18th century and has led to several proposals for voting systems.
Most voting systems are based on the concept of majority rule, or the principle that more than half of the voters should get the outcome they want. Given the simplicity of majority rule, those who are unfamiliar with voting theory are often surprised that such a variety of voting systems exists, or that popular voting systems can produce results not supported by more than half the voters. If every election had only two choices, the winner would be determined using majority rule alone. However, when there are three or more options, there may not be a single option that is preferred by a majority. Different voting systems may give very different results, particularly in cases where there is no clear majority preference.
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@tjosephcarter Sequoia voting systems was also at the heart of the NY 23 debacle.
LadyImpactOhio (Carol Greenberg) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:57:20 -0000
@tjosephcarter Sequoia voting systems was also at the heart of the NY 23 debacle.
@trsol U hear abt the voting machine thing? O puts on advisory bd. Smith who used to work for Dominion Voting Systems. Corrupt org.
LadyImpactOhio (Carol Greenberg) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:57:39 -0000
@trsol U hear abt the voting machine thing? O puts on advisory bd. Smith who used to work for Dominion Voting Systems. Corrupt org.
PanTech Designs Installs and Programs Voting, Lighting, and Sound Systems for the Fort Worth City Council Complex, ... http://ow.ly/16cKcM
SVC_magazine (SVC Magazine) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:43:56 -0000
PanTech Designs Installs and Programs Voting, Lighting, and Sound Systems for the Fort Worth City Council Complex, ... http://ow.ly/16cKcM
From @NYCSkeptics looking at voting systems how they affect outcomes in politics. http://bit.ly/59ONQu
page3d (David Page) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:24:56 -0000
From @NYCSkeptics looking at voting systems how they affect outcomes in politics. http://bit.ly/59ONQu
RT @buszero: In case u missed it: Obama rigging 2010 elections: Edwin B Smith III of Sequoia Voting Systems EAC http://tinyurl.com/ybymfss
pinnie99 (linda digiacomo) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:22:10 -0000
RT @buszero: In case u missed it: Obama rigging 2010 elections: Edwin B Smith III of Sequoia Voting Systems EAC http://tinyurl.com/ybymfss
RT @buszero: O rigging 2010 elections: Edwin B Smith III of Sequoia Voting Systems to EAC http://tinyurl.com/ybymfss // Gee what a surprise
dnoxon (Dan Noxon) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:07:34 -0000
RT @buszero: O rigging 2010 elections: Edwin B Smith III of Sequoia Voting Systems to EAC http://tinyurl.com/ybymfss // Gee what a surprise
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A New Monotonic and Clone-Independent Single-Winner Election Method - Markus Schulze writes about Condorcet methods. Includes detailed explanation of the Condorcet method (cloneproof Schwartz sequential droppingbeatpath methodSchulze method) which is used e.g. by DEBIAN and SPI. Published in Voting Matters, October 2003.
Accurate Democracy - Site explaining Condorcet's method and proportional representation, and their use in public elections and meetings. Free software included.
Meta Description: [ the best voting methods for elections and meetings. Free software included. ]
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Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Electronic Publication - Contains comprehensive information on all aspects of organising elections. Includes detailed information on voting systems, particularly pointing out the current distribution of voting systems in national elections throughout the world
Meta Description: [ (ACE Version 1.0) ]
Approval Voting - A voting procedure in which voters can vote for, or approve of, as many candidates as they wish. Each candidate approved of receives one vote, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
Meta Description: [ The original and most comprehensive web site related to Approval Voting ]
Approval Voting - Advocacy page for Approval Voting. Includes many theoretical examples which illustrate improvement over plurality voting.
Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project - Project set up to evaluate the current state and reliability of U.S. voting systems, and to propose specific uniform requirements and guidelines for U.S. voting systems. Formed in December 2000 in response to the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election.
Center for Voting and Democracy - Organization that researches how voting systems affect participation, representation and governance. Advocates proportional representation systems for legislative elections, instant runoff voting for executive and judicial elections and public interest redistricting.
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Citizens for Approval Voting - A nonprofit political organization advocating the Approval Voting system of elections.
Condorcet's Method - A pairwise election system where ranked ballots are used to simulate many head-to-head elections, where the winner is the candidate who wins all pairings.
Meta Description: [ Miscellaneous things that interest Rob Lanphier-Politics, Emacs, Perl, Electoral Reform, etc.... ]
Condorcet.org - Information on voting methods, centering around the Ranked Pairs single-winner election method. This site has an explanation of the method, along with a comprehensive comparison of methods, and software for pairwise voting tabulation.
Declared-Strategy Voting - Group decision-making procedure in which preference is specified using voting strategies in a given scenario (for instance, a first-past-the-post election)
Election Methods Website - Site advocating Condorcet/pairwise voting methods. Includes detailed explanations of Condorcet methods.
Election Selection: Science News Online - Article criticizing plurality, and discussing borda voting, instant runoff voting, and approval voting as alternatives.
Meta Description: [ By ignoring how voters might rank all the candidates in an election, the plurality system opens the floodgates to unsettling, paradoxical results when there are three or more candidates. ]
Elections, Electoral Methods and Electoral Law - Describes the voting system for German Federal elections, with discussion, statistics, and links related to unusual characteristics such as with overhang seats and negative weighting of votes.
Meta Description: [ Information and News about Elections: Electoral Systems, right to vote, results and Polls. ]
Elections: Results and Voting systems - Links to websites and articles on a variety of voting systems and suggested election reforms.
Electorama - Home of the Election-methods mailing list. Discussion of single-winner election reform, the relative merits of different proportional representation systems, and the technical underpinnings of all election methods.
Meta Description: [ An election reform extravaganza ]
How Democracy Works - Explanation two-party politics against left-right spectrum. Asserts that in perfect elections, candidates will appear equally imperfect, elections' voter turnout will often be low, and all elections will end in near ties.
International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) - A private, nonprofit organization established in 1987 to support electoral and other democratic institutions in emerging, evolving, and experienced democracies.
Meta Description: [ As one of the worlds premier democracy and governance assistance organizations IFES provides targeted technical assistance to strengthen transitional democracies ]
Making Multicandidate Elections More Democratic - Out of print book by Samuel Merrill which explains voting systems.
Making Sense out of Consensus - SIAM News article about Borda, Condorcet, and Approval voting which uses the Jesse Ventura victory in Minnesota as primary example.
May the Best Man Lose - Discover magazine critical of winner-take-all and plurality systems, favoring proposals by Donald Saari and Steven Brams.
Meta Description: [ The presidential election highlights an ugly truth about American politics: The most popular candidates often don't get elected. Visit Discover Magazine to read this article and other exclusive science and technology news stories. ]
New York Times Opinion: Making Votes Count - Archive of editorials on issues in the mechanics of US democracy, including the reliability of electronic voting machines, obstacles to voter registration, the Electoral College, and other topics.
Politicians and Polytopes mailing list - Preferential voting, and the mathematics of methods derived from or compliant with, principles of STV FPTP.
Meta Description: [ politicians-and-polytopes: Preferential Voting theory and axioms ]
PR-Squared - A new electoral system which boasts the advantages of first-past-the-post, but retains the fairness of proportional representation.
Meta Description: [ Various papers on a new electoral system called PR-Squared ]
The Chronicle of Higher Education: When Votes Don't Add Up - Article describing relative merits of Approval, Instant Runoff, and Borda methods
The De Borda Institute - A Northern Ireland-based not-for-profit organisation which aims to promote the use of Borda voting and related voting procedures on all contentious questions of social choice.
The Immigrant Voting Project - Promotes discussion of immigrant voting rights (also known as resident voting, alien suffrage, and non-citizen voting) as a sensible policy to strengthen democracy by encouraging citizenship, community building, and government accountability.
Meta Description: [ The immigrant voting project collects information about immigrant voting rights, also known as alien suffrage, resident voting, noncitizen voting, non-citizen voting, or immigrant suffrage. Immigrant voting rights promote citizenship, civic participation, and community building. ]
Voting for better voting - Alternative voting systems could reduce chances for another election-day disaster
Meta Description: [ alternative voting systems could reduce chances for another election-day disaster ]
Voting System Simulations - Millions of simulated elections, statistics gathered, utilitarian bests found. Advocates Acceptance/Approval, Borda, Condorcet, Rated, variations, while considering IRV harmful
Wikipedia: Voting System Definition - Comprehensive description of various voting systems. Site uses an open Wiki, which allows anyone to make additions or corrections.
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