I thought of another complication when it comes to trying to display intermediate results. It the method is Condorcet, there is in general no way to order the results until all votes are counted - even a ballot with the weakest candidate ranked first could contribute the margins required to calculate a Ranked Pairs or Beatpath winner. For the ezboard application, I would strongly consider just listing the number of first place votes in the intermediate results. If there turns out to be a majority winner, nobody will likely ask how the final ranking was determined. When the voting is closed, the final results could be displayed as shown in Rob Lamphier's examples below.
-----Original Message----- From: Rob Lanphier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Rob Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Election-Methods-List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, October 27, 2003 2:56 AM Subject: Re: [EM] Intro to list (etc) Rob Brown wrote: > So has anyone tried showing bar graphs or numerical scores for > Condorcet elections? I suspect that if this is completely impossible > to show something reasonable, I won't have much luck selling a > condorcet based system to a mainstream web audience....people really > seem to want to see something to help them understand the results. On > the other hand, my gut feeling is that there MUST be some way to have > Condorcet results equate to numerical values. Hi Rob, Your demo looks wonderful. Regarding display of results, it's a very difficult problem. It's hard to come up with something that is both intuitive and correct. That said, I thought the Free State Project did an interesting summary of their results: 1. New Hampshire defeated all states and Wyoming 1279-1041 2. Wyoming defeated all states except New Hampshire, and defeated Montana 1196-954 3. Montana defeated all states except Wyoming and New Hampshire, and defeated Idaho 1152-979 4. Idaho lost to the above and defeated Alaska 1269-950 5. Alaska lost to the above and defeated Maine 1127-1097 6. Maine lost to the above and defeated Vermont 1108-996 7. Vermont lost to the above and defeated Delaware 1087-1015 8. Delaware lost to the above and defeated South Dakota 1245-938 9. South Dakota lost to the above and defeated North Dakota 1101-823 10. North Dakota lost to all states The ranking is clear, and the important margins are called out. This was a relatively simple election though, since there were no circular ties anywhere down the ranking. However, I imagine that could be dealt with. For example, let's say that Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho had a three way tie that would be broken by one of the many methods discussed on this list: 1. New Hampshire defeated all states and Wyoming 1279-1041 2 through 4. (three way tie) The following defeated all states except New Hampshire 2. Wyoming - defeated Montana 1196-954, but lost to Idaho 3. Montana - defeated Idaho 1152-979, but lost to Wyoming 4. Idaho - defeated Wyoming 1020-989, but lost to Montana 5. Alaska lost to the above and defeated Maine 1127-1097 6. Maine lost to the above and defeated Vermont 1108-996 7. Vermont lost to the above and defeated Delaware 1087-1015 8. Delaware lost to the above and defeated South Dakota 1245-938 9. South Dakota lost to the above and defeated North Dakota 1101-823 10. North Dakota lost to all states A more succinct way of reporting the results would be as follows (using original results): State W L Notable victories New Hampshire 9 0 defeated Wyoming 1279-1041 Wyoming 8 1 defeated Montana 1196-954 Montana 7 2 defeated Idaho 1152-97 Idaho 6 3 defeated Alaska 1269-950 Alaska 5 4 defeated Maine 1127-1097 Maine 4 5 defeated Vermont 1108-996 Vermont 3 6 defeated Delaware 1087-101 Delaware 2 7 defeated South Dakota 1245-938 South Dakota 1 8 defeated North Dakota 1101-823 North Dakota 0 9 lost to all states For those that follow sports, this would be a comfortable and familiar format, and one that conveys a lot of important info without completely overwhelming the voter with too much information. Rob ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info