The question was:
Who is A's proxy in an A->B->C->A loop?
A is out of luck, if that's all the information there is.
But you suggested that voters might have also indicated a ranking of proxies.
Yes, I suggested two ways of doing it:
1. The voter V indicates a ranking of proxies, so that if hir 1st proxy doesn't vote on an issue, then
V's voting power goes to V's 2nd proxy, and so on, through V's proxy ranking.
2. The voter could mark a box on hir ballot to indicate that s/he wants hir voting power to go to wherever hir proxy's voting power goes. The voter's voting power is given to hir proxy, to go wherever the proxy's voting power goes.
Best of all would be to allow both options. If you vote a ranking of proxies, then you're saying where you want your voting power to go if Proxy1 doesn't vote on the issue. So if you've designated a Proxy2, then your voting power shouldn't follow Proxy 1's transfer of hir voting power to Proxy1's proxy. Your voting power instead goes to your Proxy2.
But say you don't have a Proxy2, but have marked the box that authorizes your voting power to travel with Proxy1's voting power. If there's a cycle of proxies in which none of them list a 2nd proxy, then your voting power doesn't count anywhere. But if one of those proxies has listed a 2nd proxy, then of course that's where voting power will go when it gets to hir and s/he doesn't vote on the issue. As I said, a voter or proxy's ranking of proxies should take precedence over hir authorization for hir voting power to follow that of hir 1st proxy.
So I don't know that there' s a paradox. A cycle of proxies, with no 2nd proxies, just means that if you don't vote on an issue, then your voting power on that issue doesn't count in the election.
And as long as there's a clear rule that your proxy ranking takes precedence over your authorization for your voting power to follow that of your 1st proxy, I don't know if a paradoxical situaiton can be found.
The only time your voting power should follow your 1st proxy's voting power, to your 1st proxy's proxy, should be when either you don't have a proxy ranking, but have only designated one proxy; or else when no one in your proxy ranking has voted on the issue. Then the fact that you've marked the authorizing box means that your voting power follows wherever your 1st proxy's voting power goes.
I'm not saying that it couldn't get complicated, but I don't know if it would ever be paradoxical or ambiguous.
Mike Ossipoff
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