Voting systems map

ACCURATE  DEMOCRACY

Voting Rules for Elections and Meetings

 Next: Condorcet voting rules elect central chairmen.

Use the best voting rules for your elections and meetings:
download PoliticalSimTM for learning and free software for voting.
voting-rule primerVoting-Rule Overview shows the merits of 6 great rules.
voting-rule workshopVoting-Rule Workshop shows the simple steps in each tally.

Democratic Solutions
These pages explain improvements for democracy in any size from schoolroom to nation, and at all steps from nominating candidates to allocating budgets. The concepts build from one voting task to the next:
Condorcet Electoral SystemsSingle-Winner ElectionCondorcet rules pick a widely-popular and central chairperson.
PR Representatives and DelegatesMulti-Winner ElectionProportional Representation builds a diverse and balanced council.
Board of Directors Sub-CommitteeMixed-Member Council The chair and reps make a centrally-balanced council. New
Condorcet Legislative RulesPolicy DecisionCondorcet with rules of order leads to central policies. New
Fair-Share FundingProject SelectionFair-share spending selects and funds diverse projects. New
Fair-Share FundingBudget SettingBudget Refill Voting quickly sets all agency budgets. New
 
  Tragedies of Democracy 
 
These tragedies were caused by several voting rules often used by nations and towns, co-ops and corporate boards.

plurality voting rule A. In South Korea's 1987 presidential election, two liberals faced the heir of a military dictatorship. The liberals got a majority of the votes but split their supporters, so the conservative won under a plurality vote-counting rule. These rules elect whoever gets the most votes; 50% is not required. The winner claimed a mandate to continue repressive policies. Years later he was convicted of treason in the tragic killing of pro-democracy demonstrators.

  plurality voting districts B. Ways of adding up votes fail to represent large groups in many places. In North Carolina, there were enough black voters to fill two election districts. But they were a 25% minority spread over eight districts. So they won no federal repre­sen­ta­tion; for over 100 years they were invisible as voters.

plurality rule C. The U.S. Pacific Northwest has been ripped apart for 30 years by repeated reversals of environmen­tal laws. Hasty logging in times of low regulation lays waste to resources. Periodic bans on logging bankrupt the workers and small businesses. A political pendulum swings; it cuts down forests and species, families and towns.

  
 
  
 What's Wrong?
after George H. Hallett Jr.

Our defective voting rules come from the failure to realize there are different types of election. And these require different methods of voting. “We try to carry over to more complicated situations a method which is only suitable in deciding the simplest sort of issue, that is, whether a question with only two possible answers shall be answered yes or no.” “For such an issue a simple majority election is, of course, sufficient.”

   
As soon as three candidates run for one office, the race becomes more complicated.Then a simple yes-no vote is no longer suitable.

Sometimes what we want is not a single officer, but a council that represents all the voters. Now we do not need a system of dividing voters into winners and losers. Instead we need a way of condensing them, in the right proportions, into their chosen leaders.

 
  

DEMOCRACY  EVOLVES

Eras, Election Rules and Typical Councils

     


Humor for politicians: Who wrote, “He is a barbarian and
thinks the customs of his tribe... are the laws of nature.”
1) George Bernard Shaw, 2) Voltaire, 3) Pat Robertson, 4) Le Pen ?
 

 4 light reps stand left of center, 5 dark reps to the right.
Typical Council Elected by a Plurality Rule		 The 1800s: Winner-Take-All Districts lead to Off-Center Councils.
Some English-speaking nations still use England's old plurality rule. It elects only one representative from a district, and winning it does not require a majority. So only the largest party in a district is represented. This rule tends to reward just two big political parties. Voters get just two real candidates, offering a small choice of issues and opinions. The largest party (blue in picture) rules the council. A small change in the popular vote can shift all power, making policies swerve from side to side. This is a war of winner take all.		  

 1 stands far left, 3 left of center, 0 at center, 4 on right, 1 far right.
Typical Council Elected by a PR Rule		  
1900s: Fair-Share Representation leads to Off-Center Majorities.
Proportional Representation (PR) was invented in the 1800s to end some problems caused by plurality rule. Most democracies adopted PR in the 1900s. It elects several people to represent each large district. PR can give a group that wins, say 10% of the votes, 10% of the council seats; thus PR always gives large groups their fair shares of seats. It leads to broad representation of issues and opinions. But usually there is no central party (C in picture); and the two biggest parties rarely work together. So the side with the most seats (blue and black) forms the ruling majority; — and then enacts policies skewed toward their side.		  
 1 stands far left, 2 on left of 2 at center, 3 on right, 1 far right.
Ensemble Elected by Central and PR Rules		  
2000s: Ensemble Councils lead to Broad, Centered Majorities.
New ensemble councils will elect most reps by PR, plus a few by a central voting rule (C in picture). The next page shows how a central rule picks winners with wide appeal and views near the middle of the voters. Its winners are thus near the middle of a PR council.  So they are the council's powerful swing votes.  Most voters in the winners' wide base of support don't like averaged or centrist policies. They want policies to unite the best ideas from all groups.

  
 
A “centrist policy” enacts a narrow point of view; as it excludes other opinions and needs. A “one-sided policy” also ignores rival ideas. A “compromise policy” tries to negotiate rival plans. But contrary plans forced together often work poorly; and so does the average of rival plans.

In contrast, a “balanced policy” unites compatible ideas from all sides. This process needs advocates for diverse proposals.
And more than that, it needs  powerful moderators. 

  
 
A broad balanced majority works to enact broad balanced policies — which give the greatest chance for happiness to the greatest number of people. Excellent policies are a goal of accurate democracy. Their success is measured in a typical voter's education and income, freedom and safety, health and leisure.

An ensemble is inclusive; yet it is strongly centered and decisive. Voting rules for other tasks can follow this pattern. These will make the organization more popular, stable and quick. They are likely to avoid the one-sided results and tragedies at the top of this and other pages.

 

 

Students may be most interested in
1) the primer on voting rules,
2) the workshop on movable votes,
3) the simulation tool PoliticalSim™ 		PoliticalSim political simulation research SimElection electoral voting simulation game
The voting rule primer shows the need for better voting rules.
The voting workshop shows the simple steps in each tally.
The voting simulation shows the character of each rule.
But it requires a basic knowledge of voting rules.

 
    A Map to Accurate Democracy

      Six practical uses for voting shape this ebook.
  Please read the introductions to all six tasks to see their variety.
  The concepts build from one voting situation to the next.

ElectionsLegislation
Ballot
Pictorial
Tally
IRV
Others
Tactics
Districts 		Merits
Women
STV
Visual STV
Pictorial 2
2D charts
Ballots 		Merits
Merits 2
CW+STV
Others
Notes
Seats
Shares 		Motions
Ballots
Trades
Tactics
Cycles
Others
Amend 		Uses
Needs
Notes
Sim
Ballots
Tallies
LAR 		Follies
Ballots
Others
Notes
Medians
HZ Points
Coalitions
Condorcet's rule fills chapter 1 on electing a chairperson. Chapter 4 on setting a policy looks at it more deeply. Chapters 3 and 5 also use it.
Transferable votes are introduced by IRV and STV in chapters 1 and 2. Chapters 5 and 6 show how they can fund projects and departments.

The key terms of this ebook (Condorcet, fair shares,
and transferable votes) occur in almost every chapter.
So the Table of Contents may help more than a search.
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We welcome questions and suggestions:
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© 1996-2008 AccurateDemocracy

 

 

Yes Sim Candidate 1YesSim Candidate 2 Yes

.

Irish playwright G. B. Shaw satirized chauvinist pride
and ignorance in some leaders of the British Empire.
Back to humor question 1

. . .

 

NoSim Candidate 3NoSim Candidate 4No

 

Back to humor question 1

 

Searching for more? This discipline is fractured by many synonyms.  Even its title varies: some call it public choice; others prefer social choice.  College courses that look at voting theory include economics and comparative politics or comparative government.  The table below has many terms that can help you find similar web sites.

You will find most of these terms include topics other than formulas for calculating winners from ballots.  Searching for "voting systems" will bring you most often to sites that sell voting equipment.  So will "election systems" and "ballot systems". "Election rules" bring up ballot access, campaign funding, media regulation and other laws while missing legislative voting. "Voting procedures" or "methods" suggest instructions for casting ballots. "Tally rules" is good but may neglect ballots or include tallies of things other than votes. "Voting rules" seems the least ambiguous term for ways of counting votes.

  Search Terms  
Adjectives
Nouns Voting Election Tally Ballot
Rules voting rules election rules tally rules ballot rules
Systems voting systems election systems tally systems ballot systems
Methods voting methods election methods tally methods ballot methods
Procedures voting procedures election procedures tally procedures ballot procedures

The election chapters' terms for electing, nominating or selecting a:
1) chairperson, chair, chairman, chairmen, chairwoman, chairwomen; president, prime minister or judge;
2) representative, rep, senator, congressman, congresswoman, minister, member, MP or delegate -- representatives, reps, senators, congressmen, congresswomen, ministers, members, MPs or delegates;
3) council, legislature, parliament, house of commons, senate, congress, house of representatives, assembly, meeting, convention, board of directors or sub committee;

The legislation chapters' terms to enact, set, pass, fund or budget:
1) policies, programs, laws, rules or regulations;
2) projects, grants, earmarks or proposals;
3) budgets, departments, agencies or programs;

Please try PoliticalSim tm (political sim), a free open-source political simulation game for Windows, and SimElection tm, electoral simulation software for Macintosh, for interactive simulations of approval voting, Borda rule, Condorcet rules (minmax or Copeland), instant runoff voting (IRV, alternative vote, Hare), majority rule, plurality rule (aka first past the post, FPTP), proportional representation (list PR, full representation, proportional voting), single transferable vote (STV, choice voting), cumulative vote, limited vote, bloc vote and other voting rules.

 

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