Voting Rules for Accurate Democracy   Election Systems. Electoral Simulations Contents
español Chinese
Democratic voting rules intro

Voting Systems
for Voting Tasks

Goals for democracy
divider
This site shows the best voting systems for elections and meetings.
The resulting councils are inclusive, well centered, and decisive.
Free software makes voting and tallies easy!

These pages explain improvements for democracy in any size from schoolroom to nation, and at all steps from nominating candidates to allocating funds.  The concepts build from one voting situation to the next.
Pie SharesOverview Democracy's rules affect the quality of life.
dotSingle-Winner ElectionPairwise rule elects a widely-popular and central chairperson.
ringMulti-Winner Election Full Representation fills a diverse and balanced council.
targetMixed-Member Council The chair and reps make a centrally-balanced council.New
Pairwise CenteringPolicy Decision
Pairwise with rules of order leads to central policies.New
Project DistributionProject Selection
Fair Share Voting selects and funds diverse projects.New
BudgetsBudget Setting Fair-share points quickly adjust all agency budgets.New
Fair SharesReview & Continue
Continue with books, links, software and more.

Gray labels mark pages under development.

Overview of Elections 

Democracy's tragedies and advances; Eras, voting rules and typical councils.
Voting systems map

Primer on Principles for: IRV, Full Rep PR, Condorcet, and Fair-share budgets.  Math ed.

Workshop Move your visible votes for: Instant Runoff Voting, STV and Budget rules.

    Teacher's Guides to participatory tallies; Tally logic, and Software.

Hidden Philosophies in voting systems: Why take a vote, Two views on elections.

Quotes A few unusual quotes about democracy, Democratic personality types?

Quotes Game Distinguish between democratic and authoritarian ideas. 

Democratic Goals for elections and legislation, Strengthen democracy, Three propositions.

Against Democracy Arguments against direct democracy and representation.

Ads. vs. Info. Campaign funding, Negative campaigns.

 Single-Winner Elections 

Plurality failures, the pairwise Condorcet voting system.
Voting systems map

Preference Ballots give a voter the power to rank candidates: 1st choice, 2nd, 3rd ...

Voter Graphics show how Condorcet's voting system elects central winners.

Tally Table for Condorcet's method, interactive.

Instant Runoff Voting An interactive IRV tally, Compare voting systems to elect one.

Other Rules Plurality rules, Majority rules, Condorcet completion rules and others.

    Comparisons of several voting systems for electing one winner.

    Strategies Decapitation, Free rides, Punishing votes and Raising turkeys,
                    Exaggeration, Divide and conquer, Gerrymander.

District Maps Gerrymanders, Condorcet districts, Objections to competitive districts.

Quotes The Marquis de Condorcet, Condorcet's criterion.

Criticisms of Condorcet based on behaviors of voters, politicians and governments.

 Multi-Winner Elections 

Plurality failures, Proportional Representation (PR), Fair shares, Electing women.
Voting systems map

Merits Benefits of PR: Geography, Campaign funding, Negative ads.

Electing Women Stats showing PR boosts voter turnout, women winning, prosperity.

Quotes Proportional Representation has won wide and deep support.

Single Transferable Vote analogy and logic, effects and merits.

    Picture Tally 1 steps through a tally protecting a minority's right to representation.

    Picture Game 2 STV also protects the majority group's right to a council majority.

    2D Charts show the steps in an STV election from PoliticalSim TM.

PR Ballots used for IRV / STV, List PR and MMP elections.

Anti PR Arguments against proportional representation.

Options for PR voting systems: Thresholds, Divisors, Quotas, Lists, Transfers.

 Council Elections 

Off-center majorities, Central swing-vote moderator.
Voting systems map

Merits of balanced majorities, Avoiding policy reversals, Calming political hysteria.

More Merits of ensemble councils: What is the center, FAQ's.

Condorcet + STV is best for making the Condorcet winner a council's swing voter.

Notes & Quotes Evolving toward stability, Sabbatical terms, Nominating directors.

Seats Choosing an electoral voting system to fit a council's number of seats.

Shares A brief history of quotas, the votes needed for victory.

 Enacting Policy 

Agenda failures, Policy making, Ballots, Central policies, Initiatives.
Voting rules for setting policies; Condorcet rules

Agenda Scams Late introduction, One against all, Poison-pill amendments, Free riders.

Voting Cycles A Condorcet tie is a voting paradox.

Loring One-winner Rule is a Condorcet-completion rule just for setting policy.

Basic Motions Rules of order for ranked-choice voting to enact policies.

Preference Ballots offer more choices, more control and faster decisions.

Amendments Sequential voting procedures of some European democracies.

Vote Trading can change policies to please more people.

Comparative data shows how easily and often can we manipulate each rule.

Other Methods Policy decisions without preference ballots.  Notes on policy votes.

 Selecting Projects 

Participatory budgeting, Fair-Share Voting.
Fair-share funding

Uses of FSV rules Subscribers, Clubs, Market research, Investment funds, Grant givers.

Need The haphazard ways Congress and cities spend discretionary funds.

Notes What is a public good? Limit majority power.

FSV Tally Definitions, Equity, Utility.

FSV Ballot Criteria, voter's share, quota, buying votes, Lower choices.

Voting Options Two of a kind, Protect top choices, Sets of winners, Strategies.

Sim Game Free software.LAR Condorcet then transferable votes.

FSVa Ballot Advanced-math ballot, paying for votes, Charts of offers, Try a ballot.

FSVa Tally math: Definitions, Equity, Utility, Ballot examples, Calculations.  Excel tally.

Tally Options to optimize project selection: Suspended votes, Ties, Contributions.

   Other FSV Rules.   Limited Vote.   Median Votes.   Anti Fair Shares.

 Adjusting Budgets 

Budget Points let all voters affect ongoing department budgets.
Voting rules for setting budgets

Budget Follies The election-year budget process in the U.S. Congress.

Budget Refill Voting, Automated, Over time, Negative cards.

Other Rules Hammer's, Turns, Medians, Points, Economic, MMV.

Notes Paying taxes, Market failures, Ballots.

Median Voter Process finds a starting point for adjusting budgets.                      

Table & Cards shows old equipment for adjusting budgets.

Hylland-Zeckhauser The H-Z trick, Square-root voting, Criticisms of H-Z.

Influence Points Calculations for influence points,  Ballot and tally software.

Coalitions affect on influence points.

 End Matter 

       Review goals for voting systems in meetings and elections.
Voting systems map

Software to tally most voting systems for elections and meetings.

Simulation software for games, lectures, and research.  PoliticalSim

Printouts about accurate democracy, including the Workshop and Primer.

Income for experts in accurate democracy.

To Do Research, writing and programming needed for democracy.

Reforms most likely in the USA: IRV for chief execs, PB for local projects, STV.

Future Rules sketches possibilities for new voting systems.

Bibliography lists links, books and other resources for accurate democracy.

Voting Glossary on social choice and voting systems.

References keyed to the Primer.

Thanks from the author, a philosophy. What led to this work.

Contacts Please write about your experience in Accurate Democracy.

Each chapter looks at one use for voting such as electing reps or setting budgets.  The main page introduces the type of decision and some merits of the best voting system.  Secondary pages explain the system's logic through words, numbers and pictures.

Please read the main pages before delving into the mechanics of a particular voting system.  A typical consumer does not read the mechanic's manual for a refrigerator before using it and accurate voting systems are about that complicated.  Although some tallies are difficult, the voter's task to mark a ballot is easy.

Printouts of the primer are handy to read carefully and give away.
The download folder has many many documents and programs.

Search Accurate Democracy

español en
español.
PoliticalSim political simulation research

Accurate Democracy by Robert Loring is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Creative Commons License

Your questions and comments are welcome at voting - site at gmai l.  No dashes, dots or spaces.