plurality voting districts Old ways of adding up votes fail to represent large groups in many places. In the USA, North Carolina had enough black voters to fill two election districts. But they were a 25% minority spread over eight districts. So, for over 100 years they won no seats in Congress. As voters they were silenced —with tragic results.
plurality rule The Northwestern U.S. was ripped apart for many years, as forestry policies were reversed again and again. Hasty logging in times of weak regulation wasted resources. Sudden limits on logging bankrupted some workers and small businesses. If this policy pendulum swings, it cuts down forests and species, families and towns. What can big swings in other policies do?
These tragedies were caused by voting rules often used by nations and towns, co-ops and corporate boards.
plurality voting rule Running for president in South Korea, the former aide to a military dictator faced two reformers. The two got a majority of the votes but split their supporters. So the aide won a plurality. (37%, 28%, 27%, 8%)
A plurality vote-counting rule elects whoever gets the most votes; a majority, 50% is not required. The winner claimed a mandate to continue oppressive policies. Years later he was convicted of treason in the tragic killing of pro-democracy demonstrators.
Our defective voting rules come from the failure to see there are different uses for voting, and these require different types 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.”
Sometimes what we want is not a solitary officer, but a council that represents all the voters. Then 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.
In a district where only the biggest party wins a rep, only two big parties thrive. So the voters get only two real candidates; that is a very limited choice. Each district's bias tends to make its only seat 'safe' for one party. So most voters get no real choice. A few of those who do get choices can make majorities swerve from side to side. The council majority sets all policies (dark blue in picture) in another battle of winner take all.
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 to one side.
Most voters in the winners' wide base of support don't want averaged or centrist policies. They want policies to unite the best ideas from all groups.
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.
Old tally rules often cause one-sided results and tragedies. An ensemble is inclusive; yet it is strongly centered and decisive. So it can make the organization popular, yet stable and quick. The best rules for spending and policies follow this pattern...
...as you can see on the quick graphic tour of the best voting rules.
Center a Chairperson from a plurality to a majority of voters,
Full Rep a Council from a plurality to over three quarters,
Budgets a Budget from a few power blocs to all members,
Center a Policy from a one-sided to an over-all majority.
Power is more principled when we tally
fair shares for seats or spending and a
true majority for a president or policy.
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A Map to Accurate Democracy
Six practical uses for voting shape this ebook.
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| Elections | Legislation | ||||
| Choice ballots
Tally pictures Tally table Instant Runoff Other rules Voting tactics Voting districts | Merits of PR
Women in PR STV for PR Visual STV Graphics 2 2D charts PR ballots | Merits
Merits 2 CW+STV Other rules Notes Seats Shares | Motions
Ballots Trades Tactics Cycles Other rules Amend | Uses
Needs Notes Sim Ballots Tallies LAR | $ Follies
Ballots Other rules 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. | |||||
NEW! The presentation about Fair Share Voting
from the 2012 Participatory Budgeting Conference!
English: Open Office slide show,
Printout (PDF).
Español: Open Office diapositivas,
impresora.
中国版 Chinese: Open Office 幻灯片,
打印 (PDF).
Yes [画像:Sim Candidate 1]Yes[画像:Sim Candidate 2] Yes
Irish playwright G. B. Shaw satirized chauvinist pride
and ignorance in some leaders of the British Empire.
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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 methods 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 mean tallies of things other than votes. "Voting rules" is a simple term for ways of casting and counting votes.
The election chapters' terms for electing, nominating or selecting a:
The legislation chapters' terms to enact, set, pass, fund or budget:
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 (Minimax 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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