Vote Tallying

Summary:

Discussion of how the voting is done.

Vote Tallying

bkcallahan 30 Aug 2011 18:28

As I recall form last election, there were many different forms/ways to vote and tally them. The simplest and most recognizable (at least to an American) is each person gets one vote, and winner takes all.

With majority rule, those who are unfamiliar with voting theory are often surprised that another voting system exists, or that disagreements may exist over the definition of what it means to be supported by a majority. Depending on the meaning chosen, the common "majority rule" systems can produce results that the majority does not support. 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 most liked or most disliked by a majority. A simple choice does not allow voters to express the ordering or the intensity of their feeling. Different voting systems may give very different results, particularly in cases where there is no clear majority preference. — Wikipedia

The above quoted article should be a good base to start from for those unfamiliar with different voting theories. For a quick table of options and comparisons, please see this table.

Re: Vote Tallying

bkcallahan 30 Aug 2011 18:32

Locked synopsis page is here.

Re: Vote Tallying

MildBill 30 Aug 2011 20:20

Since it seems obvious that the eventual winner must have a full and true majority vote, and to avoid the need for at least 2 rounds of voting, let me make the following proposal:

The contingent vote is an electoral system used to elect a single winner, in which the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In an election, if no candidate receives an absolute majority of first preference votes, then all but the two leading candidates are eliminated and there is a second count. In the second count the votes of those who supported eliminated candidates are distributed among the two remaining candidates, so that one candidate achieves an absolute majority. The contingent vote is similar to the alternative vote but differs from it in that the alternative vote typically allows for many rounds of counting, whereas under the contingent vote there are never more than two. In the United States both the contingent vote and the alternative vote are often referred to as variants of instant-runoff voting. The contingent vote can also be considered a compressed form of the two round system (runoff system), in which both 'rounds' occur without the need for voters to go to the polls twice.

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingent_vote).

In this manner, if one candidate has that standout, clear majority vote, the ballots need only be counted one time.
If, however, as seems likely, there is no clear majority, this method transfers the votes of the clear non-winners to the other candidates by the rankings on each individual ballot, and continues to do so in as many recounts as necessary until one candidate has that clear majority.
But, it does not require a second ballot, which could take an excessive amount of time given the 'occasional' nature of some of the channel populace.

MildBill

Re: Vote Tallying

bkcallahan 30 Aug 2011 20:39

Added to synopsis.

Re: Vote Tallying

tamouse 01 Sep 2011 05:03

At this point, I don't know how anyone can really say what is likely. I could just as easily say it's likely that everyone will just go with the status quo, as Pau has assumed the role pro tem, perhaps people will be just as willing to go with him permanently. However, I don't really know what most people think about this.