PoliticalSim Guide
for First-Time Users

• Uncompress the download file.⁽¹⁾
• Open the file called Poli_Sim.xlm.⁽²⁾
• Pull down the Elect menu to Cast Ballots.
• On the Elect menu, choose Tally Votes and click OK.
• View the results of your first Political Sim!

(1) Most versions will decompress themselves when you open the download file. Versions with a name that ends in ".zip" need a program such as WinZip or SuffIt.

Commands to note:

A) Organize Menu

2) Register Voters: Do not put an "X" in Redistribute. This makes voters keep the checkerboard pattern while you change the percentages in each party faction.

For clairity, do not check Mix Factions Together.

On the right of this "dialog box" are 5 rows with 3 boxes in each row. The first column is for a party's name; the second is for its "Z level", explained below; and the third is for its percentage of voters.

Try putting most voters (60% to 80%) in the Blue party and make their Z=0. Then put the other voters in the Green party and make their Z=9. These Z levels make all Blue voters rank all Blue candidates above all Green candidates.

(This is because the map space is 2 or 3 units across and the same in height. The longest distance across the screen is 9 units. So the distance between Z=0 and Z=9 puts the Green candidates further from Blue voters than all Blue candidates.)

The X and Y dimensions are the width and height of the Map page on your computer screen. The Z dimension goes in and out from your screen and is shown only by the color of the voter or candidate. If you set parties at different Z levels and forget it, you will wonder why a candidate loses despite being close to many voters on the X-Y screen.

3) Nominate Candidates: A party's candidates ought to have the same Z level as its voters.

You can move each candidate by hand: Hold down the Control key and slowly click twice on a candidate, then move it along the X or Y dimension. You can also move candidates by directly changing their (X, Y, Z) numbers on the Register page. To update the map, hold the control key as you tap the = (equal sign) key.

4) Set Voting Rules: Select a voting from the list of proportional, semi-proportional and winner-take-all rules; then set the rule's quota etc. if needed. (This command was "Bid on Rules" The option to "Let a dictator choose" led to the "Set Voting Rules" dialog. The other options demonstrated two interesting rules, not used in elections.)

B) Campaign Menu:

PoliticalSim^TM started as a way to show the patterns of representation elected by a variety of voting rules: central, fair-share proportional, one-sided and erratic. That is what PS is best at.

C) Elect Menu

2) Watch Returns

The option to Show STV Transfers is worth watching when running a tally of Single Transferable Vote.

Notice: Are winners all from one party? What is the pattern elected by the current voting rule: central, fair-share proportional, one-sided or erratic?

PoliticalSim can tally voting rules which require single-member districts but they do not work well in games. They require maps that show which district each voter and candidate is in by the shape of his or her symbol.

PoliticalSim can create new elections automatically, mesmerizing like a screen saver, I call it the "Lava Lamp" mode. To start it, select Run Research on the Organize menu and step through the dialog boxes. When you get to "News Coverage", set the Number of Elections at 99 (or less if you want) and set "Record Results to Column" 0 (zero or blank). Although this mode was built for statistical research, you don't want to create dozens of statistical files while running it for amusement.