A quote from "A review of the ERS97 rules" by B A Wichmann, Voting matters, Issue 10, March 1999
"5. The calculation of the quota and the recording of transfers appears to give the impression of undertaking computations to one hundredth of the vote. However, this is not achieved, since that accuracy requires that the transfer values are computed to a greater accuracy. Indeed, if p votes are transferred, then there is a truncation error of at most p/100, which implies that transfer values should be computed to about (number of digits in total votes)+1 digits. I do not believe that an arithmetic approximation which can lose a whole vote is acceptable since the voter could reasonably equate the loss to his/ her vote. Unfortunately, the rules depend upon (number of papers)*(transfer value) in hundredths of a vote, so it is difficult to increase the accuracy without complexities elsewhere. Hence I conclude that this problem is inherent in this type of rule and could be seen as a defect in ERS97."
Could somebody please explain this to me?
Why is "about (number of digits in total votes)+1" implied? What are the complexities elsewhere?
Olli Salmi ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
