Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts

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Voting Systems suggested document
Friday June 01, @01:43AM, by Dan Keshet
Subject : Structure
from the of arcane bylaws... dept.
Summary :
This is my suggestions for the voting systems, based on Jamie's original document.

Somebody might want to help translate into English.

Also, there are variations which must be selected from.
Text :
A) In order to promote fairness and inclusiveness, a Single
Transferable Vote Proportional Representation (STV PR) system shall be
used when voting to select one or more proposals or candidates from
many. Additional details of this voting system shall be specified in
an appendix.

A voter must rank her choices with her top choice ranked first, the
second choice ranked second, and so on. A voter may choose to rank as
many or as few of the proposals as she desires.

Each proposal or candidate must receive a threshold number of votes to
be selected. The threshold number of votes is equal to the following
formula*: ( The number of voters / (number of selections + 1) ) + 1,
rounded down to the nearest whole number.

Votes are apportioned among their first ranked choice. The choices
that receive more than the threshold number of votes shall be deemed
to have a surplus and the surplus votes shall be allocated amongst
their next eligible choice in an equitable manner, explained in an
accompanying document. After this reallocation is performed, the
choice that received the fewest votes is eliminated and the ballots
for it are apportioned among their next-ranked eligible choices.
Choices are eligible to receive new votes if they 1) have not received
the necessary threshold, and 2) have not been eliminated.

Alternate 1A: (NOTA) [ This process is repeated until all candidates have
either reached the threshold or been eliminated. ]

Alternate 1B: (No NOTA) [ This process is repeated until the number of
choices that have not been eliminated is equal to the number of
choices to be selected. ]

*In the special case that there is only one proposal to be selected,
the threshold will be 2/3 of all votes cast. This does not apply to
candidate elections.

B) In candidate elections, if the number of voters is greater than 24,
we shall modify the above voting systems to increase the level of
diversity of the candidates elected. For every 100 valid votes cast,
each candidate will receive an additional vote for each diversity
criteria he or she holds. For the purposes of calculating the
threshold, each diversity vote will count as one single ballot with
one single candidate listed. The diversity criteria are:

o Candidate is a woman;
o Candidate is a person of color;
o Candidate is a person with a disability;
o Candidate is a member of the LBGT caucus;
o Candidate is below the age of 21 at the time of election;
o Candidate is low-income by Federal poverty guidelines.

A candidate must choose whether he or she qualifies for a particular
diversity criteria. The state committee or its appointed working
committee shall devise rules to credential and challenge a candidate's
choice of a particular diversity criteria. A diversity criteria shall
not be used if all candidates qualify for that criteria.

Alternate 2A: (only to be used in conjunction with Alternate 1A): [In
candidate elections, if the the number of choices that have not been
eliminated is equal to the desired number of selections, but the
desired number of candidates have not reached their threshold, the
diversity votes for candidates who have been eliminated will be
removed and the threshold will be recalculated for the remaining
candidates. This will not affect those candidates who have already
reached the original threshold.]

Alternate 3A (only to be used in conjunction with Alternate 1A): [In
the special case that there is only one candidate to be selected, the
last candidate not eliminated will be declared elected.]

********************Appendix**************************

SURPLUS VOTES

Surplus votes shall be allocated amongst their next eligible choice in
one of two ways: Sequential Allocation or ASequential Allocation. The
choice must be announced by the vote-counters before the voting is
conducted, and they must achieve a concensus if they wish to use
Sequential Allocation. If the vote-counters fail to announce a
choice, they must use Asequential Allocation.

* Sequential Allocation *

In sequential allocation, after all ballots have been received, they
are numbered in random order. When a selection has reached its
threshold, the ballots cast for it are placed in numerical order. The
first n ballots, where n is the number of ballots necessary to reach
the threshold, are allocated to the selection. The remaining ballots
for that selection are allocated to the next choice on the ballot.

* Asequential Allocation *

In asequential allocation, when a selection has reached its threshold,
each vote it received is weighted according to the following formula:
( Threshold / Votes Received ) to the original selection, ( Votes
Received - Threshold / Votes Received ) to the next eligible candidate
on the ballot. This ballot is still tranferrable to another candidate,
but it remains weighted. If a ballot is transferred from any
subsequent candidates reaching their quota, its new weight is the
product of all weighting factors it has received.

BREAKING TIES

If there is a tie for the last position, whichever selection had the
fewest votes in the last round is eliminated. If they had the same
number of votes in the last round, then you compare the previous
round. If they've had the same number of votes the whole election,
then the tie will be broken by coin toss.

INVALID BALLOTS

If a ballot ranks two or more candidates evenly, that ranking will be
ignored and the ballot will precede to the next highest-ranked
candidate.

In all other cases, a panel of three vote-counters will
convene to determine how to interpret the ballot. At
all times, they will attempt to honor the voters' intent.
Reply

New version
Friday June 01, @11:56AM Friday June 01, @11:56AM, by Dan Keshet
A) In order to promote fairness and inclusiveness, a Single
Transferable Vote Proportional Representation (STV PR) system shall be
used when voting to select one or more proposals or candidates from
many.

We will refer to the number of desired selections as the number of Selections.

A voter must rank her choices with her top choice ranked first, the
second choice ranked second, and so on. A voter may choose to rank as
many or as few of the choices as she desires.

Each choice must receive a threshold number of votes to
be selected. The threshold number of votes is equal to the following
formula*: ( The number of voters / (number of Selections + 1) ) + 1, rounded
down to the nearest whole number.

Votes are apportioned among their top-ranked choice. The choices that
receive more than the threshold number of votes shall be deemed
Selected and any votes they receive beyond the threshold shall be
reallocated amongst their next-highest-ranked Eligible choices in an
equitable manner.

This process is repeated until there are no more Selected choices who
have more votes than the threshold. When this happens, the choice
that received the fewest votes is deemed Defeated and the ballots for
it are apportioned among their next-highest-ranked Eligible choices.
The process of Selection, then Defeat, is repeated until all choices
have either been Selected or Defeated.

Choices are Eligible to receive reallocated votes if they have not
been Selected or Defeated.

*In the special case that only one proposal or candidate will be
selected, the threshold will be 2/3 of all votes cast.

B) In candidate elections, if the number of voters is greater than 24,
we shall modify the above voting systems to increase the level of
diversity of the candidates elected. For every 100 valid votes cast,
each candidate will receive an additional vote for each diversity
criteria he or she holds. For the purposes of calculating the
threshold, each diversity vote will count as one single ballot with
one single candidate listed. The diversity criteria are:

o Candidate is a woman;
o Candidate is a person of color;
o Candidate is a person with a disability;
o Candidate is a member of the LBGT caucus;
o Candidate is below the age of 21 at the time of election;
o Candidate is low-income by Federal poverty guidelines.

A candidate must choose whether he or she qualifies for a particular
diversity criteria. The state committee or its appointed working
committee shall devise rules to credential and challenge a candidate's
choice of a particular diversity criteria. A diversity criteria shall
not be used if all candidates qualify for that criteria.

In candidate elections, if the the number of Eligible choices plus the
number of Selected choices is equal to the number of Selections, and
there is one or more Eligible chioces, the diversity votes for
candidates who have been Defeated will be removed from the pool and
the threshold will be recalculated for the Eligible candidates. This
will not affect the Selected candidates.

Additional details of this voting system shall be specified in
an appendix.
********************Appendix**************************

SURPLUS VOTES

Surplus votes shall be allocated amongst their next-highest-ranked
Eligible choice in one of two ways: Sequential Allocation or
Asequential Allocation. The choice must be announced by the
vote-counters before the voting is conducted and they must achieve a
concensus if they wish to use Sequential Allocation. If the
vote-counters fail to announce a choice, they must use Asequential
Allocation.

* Sequential Allocation *

In sequential allocation, after all ballots have been received, they
are numbered in random order. When a choice has been Selected, the
ballots cast for it are placed in numerical order. The first n
ballots are allocated to the choice, where n is the number of ballots
necessary to be Selected. The remaining ballots for that choice are
reallocated to the next-highest-ranked Eligible choice on that ballot.

* Asequential Allocation *

In asequential allocation, when a choice has been Selected, each vote
it received is weighted according to the following formula:

( Threshold / Votes Received ) to the choice

( Votes Received - Threshold / Votes Received ) to the
next-highest-ranked Eligible candidate on the ballot.

If a ballot is transferred from any subsequent Selected candidates,
its new weight is the product of all weighting factors it has
received.

BREAKING TIES

If there is a tie for the last position, whichever choice had the
fewest votes in the previous round is eliminated. If they had the same
number of votes in the previous round, then you compare the
next-previous round. If they've had the same number of votes the
whole election, then the tie will be broken by coin toss.

INVALID BALLOTS

If a ballot ranks two or more candidates evenly, that ranking will be
ignored and the ballot will precede to the next highest-ranked
candidate.

In all other cases, a panel of three vote-counters will convene to
determine how to interpret the ballot. At all times, they will attempt
to honor the voters' intent.
Reply

Re: New version
Friday June 01, @12:51PM Friday June 01, @12:51PM, by Jamie O'Keefe
I accepted your changes and worked on the language a little. Here is what I have:

A) In order to promote fairness and inclusiveness, a Single Transferable Vote Proportional Representation (STV PR) system shall be used when voting to select one or more proposals or candidates from many. The exact details of this voting system shall be specified in another document that is made publicly available.

We will refer to the number of desired selections as the number of Selections.

A voter must rank her choices with her top choice ranked first, the second choice ranked second, and so on. A voter may choose to rank as many or as few of the proposals as she desires.

Each proposal must receive a threshold number of votes to be selected. In the case when one proposal or candidate is to be chosen, the threshold number of votes shall be 2/3 of the votes cast. In the case when more than one proposal or candidate is to be chosen, the threshold number of votes is equal to the following formula: ((the number of voters) / (the number of Selections + 1)) + 1, rounded down to the nearest whole number.

Votes are apportioned among their top-ranked choice. The choices that receive more than the threshold number of votes shall be deemed to be Selected and any votes they receive beyond the threshold shall be reallocated amongst their next-highest-ranked Eligible choices in an equitable manner.

This process is repeated until there are no more Selected choices who have more votes than the threshold. When this happens, the choice that received the fewest votes is deemed Defeated and the ballots for it are apportioned among their next-highest-ranked Eligible choices. The process of Selection, then Defeat, is repeated until all choices have either been Selected or Defeated.

Choices are Eligible to receive reallocated votes if they have not been Selected or Defeated.

B) In candidate elections, if the number of voters is greater than 24, we shall modify the above voting systems to increase the level of diversity of the candidates elected. A candidate will receive an additional vote for each diversity criteria he or she holds. For every 100 valid votes cast, each candidate will receive an additional vote for each diversity criteria he or she holds. For the purposes of calculating the threshold, each diversity vote will count as one single ballot with one single candidate listed. The diversity criteria are:

o Candidate is a woman;
o Candidate is a person of color;
o Candidate is a person with a disability;
o Candidate is a member of the LBGT caucus;
o Candidate is below the age of 21 at the time of election;
o Candidate is low-income by Federal poverty guidelines.

A candidate must choose whether she qualifies for a particular diversity criteria. The state committee or its appointed working committee shall devise rules to credential and challenge a candidate’s choice of a particular diversity criteria. A diversity criteria shall not be used if all candidates qualify for that criteria.

In candidate elections, if the number of Eligible choices plus the number of Selected choices is equal to the number of Selections, and there is one or more Eligible choices, the diversity votes for candidates who have been Defeated will be removed from the pool and the threshold will be recalculated for the Eligible candidates. This will not affect the Selected candidates.
Reply

Re: New version
Friday June 01, @02:20PM Friday June 01, @02:20PM, by Dan Keshet
Looks good to me. :)
Reply
Re: New version
Friday June 01, @09:11PM Friday June 01, @09:11PM, by Dan Keshet
> In candidate elections, if the number of Eligible choices plus the number of Selected choices is equal to the number of Selections, and there is one or more Eligible choices, the diversity votes for candidates who have been Defeated will be removed from the pool and the threshold will be recalculated for the Eligible candidates. This will not affect the Selected candidates.

Caleb from the CVD suggests striking this paragraph, saying he doubts it will ever make a difference and it makes the diversity votes seem like second-class votes. If we have time for friendly amendments, I may offer this.
Reply