A Movable-Vote
Workshop

By organizing voters, Instant Runoff Voting ends:
Spoilers and lesser-of-two-evils voting;
Costly runoffs and winners without majority mandates.

IRV elects leaders in London, Sidney, San Francisco and more.
It elects students leaders at Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford...

Questions on Instant Runoff Voting

Single Transferable Vote Elects Several Reps

• The finish line marks the height of a quarter of the cards plus one.
• Do not give a card to a candidate who has finished.
• Eliminate the weakest candidates one at a time.
• Move your cards until three candidates win!

Single Transferable Vote is used in Australian and Irish elections,
at Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and Cambridge,
in some unions, and in the Church of England.

It gives each group their fair share of voices on a council.
It often elects more women and minority candidates.
It increases choices for voters and turnout of voters.
It makes more effective votes that elect reps.

Questions on Single Transferable Vote

Movable Money Votes Buy Public Goods

• Let's say we each put in $1 to buy some items.
  You get two 25¢ voting cards and a 50¢ double card.
• We decide an item needs modest support from 10 of us
  to prove it is a public good worth public money.
  So the finish line marks the height of 10 single cards.
• You may put only one of your cards in a column.
  So you can't dump all your cards on a private item.
   
  Tip: Give your double card to your favorite item.
  This way 5 eager voters can fund a low-cost item.
  So the voters' number and zeal both count.

• A costly item must fill several columns.  A column here
  holds $2.50, so a $5.00 item must fill two columns.
• When a item wins, the banker hides its cards, and then
  rejects any item that costs more than all the cards left.
  Then one at a time, we reject the least popular item,
  with the lowest level of cards in its columns.
• Move your cards from a loser to your next choice.
  Tip: You may try to save a threatened favorite by briefly
  withholding your cards from lower-choices.

  Voting stops when all the items still on the table are paid up.
  Only a few items can win, but all voters can win something!

Questions on Movable Money Voting

It's new; try it!  It can help your group directly and set an example
for others.  You can give something to the progress of democracy!

Budget Refill Voting Adjusts
Many Departments

• A big department or program has several columns to fill.
• The columns each need $100...   for the program to reach
  last year's budget; that is its refill line.
• A supporter's cards help refill its budget columns.
  Voters can push it above its refill line.
  But its gain will be another program's loss.

Let's say a council of 20 decides each program needs
moderate support from 10 members to restore its funding.
So a column needs 10 cards from 10 voters to reach its
refill line, or as few as 5 double cards from eager voters.

The group wants to budget 4 low-cost activities with 1
column each, plus 3 costly programs with 2 columns each.
Those 10 columns X 10 cards to refill each = 100 cards.

The 100 cards / 20 voters = 5 cards for each voter; that's 1
double and 3 singles. You may put only 1 card in a column.

• Set target budgets for programs and rank your priorities.
  As a budget nears your target, its priority likely goes down.
  So move your cards to your next under-funded priority.
• Reacting is key!

• We stop voting when a hidden timer sounds.
  You lose cards that are not on the board.
  This deters faking votes until a last-moment switch.
• A two-thirds majority may reopen the voting.

Questions on Budget Refill Voting

Pairwise Rule Centers a Policy

• Policy C's flag is at our center, by the median voter.
  Three flags surround C, about 4' from it. (1.2m)
• Pairwise asks: “Are you closer to flag A than flag B?
  If so, please raise your hand.”  Then test A against C, etc.
  We put each total in the Pairwise table below.
• The winner must top every rival, one-against-one.

Pairwise is a Wide-Appeal Contest.

• A pole stands at our center, by the median voters.
  It holds a short Red ribbon and a long Blue one.
• If the Red ribbon gets to you, the Red policy
  gets your vote with its narrow appeal.
• But if the Red cannot touch you, the wider appeal
  of the Blue policy gets your vote.  Which one wins?

 If the poles are places for a heater in an icy cold room. 
A) Do we put it at our center or in the biggest group ? 
B) Do we turn on its fan to spread the heat wide ? 

Questions on Pairwise Voting

Conclusions

Booklets, Flip Charts, and Slide Shows

The B&W pocket primers print well on black-ink printers.
The others are best on color printers.
The booklets are arranged for two-sided printing:
Print half.  Reload (restack if needed).  Print the rest.
The Large and Flipchart versions are for one-sided printing.
The Power Point slideshows include discussion notes.

Workshops can print on A4 letter paper (no cuts or folds) with
plain columns: doc, pdf; or a more colorful style: doc, pdf.
Covers printed on heavy card stock are nice for paperback and
hardback booklets.  The paperback includes voting cards.

Mail Order: Prices include shipping in the USA and Canada.
Pocket size in laser-quality B&W are 20 copies for $19.
Paperback size in color with card-stock covers are 20 for $49.
Hardback size in color with card-stock covers are 10 for $39.