On Sun, 10 Jul 2005, Dave Ketchum wrote:
I believe I have the answer for Condorcet, and that you should be able to
build on this for ratings. I also think of voting at multiple precincts,
doing an array at each precinct, and summing the arrays for total district.
May have to scan each ballot for new names at start of its processing, so
that new names are added only between ballots. Certainly do not have to scan
all the ballots for new names before starting to count.
Besides the array for all current candidates, keep a dummy column for a dummy
candidate, who always loses to every voted candidate.
When a new candidate turns up, start its new array column and row with a copy
of the dummy column and a row of zeros, for this candidate has won nothing to
date.
Yep. This definitely works to make a good one-pass solution with
write-ins. Keeping a dummy un-voted-on choice works to sub in those values
to initialize a new choice.
And I think it will also work for summing across precincts. If a write-in
choice exists in one precinct and not another then the dummy values should
be used in the precinct where it doesn't exist.
Brian Olson
http://bolson.org/
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