I'll speak of it in terms of PR, because that's where LR is used. A party's remainder can be from 0 to almost 1, and, on average, it's .5 That means .5 quotas of remainder for each party. That means .5 remainder seats per party. So, since remainders, in the long run, are randomly ordered, a party's expectation is half of a remainder seat So, for instance, the party with 4.5 quotas has an expectation of 4.5 seats. So, on average, seats per quota is the same for all the parties.
No doubt that isn't really a solid demonstration, but it's plausible. Because I'm used to single-winner methods, where merit differences are drastic, maybe I'm a bit over-dramatic in my criticism of apportionment and PR methods, none of which are really bad. In particular, LR, being unbiased, would be fine, in spite of its game-of-chance component. I've enjoyed betting small amounts at the craps table. But never bet what you can't afford to lose. So, Juho, say your favorite party is proportionally qualified for one seat. LR might give it one, two, or zero seats. Do you really want to play double-or-nothing with your representation? Mike Ossipoff _________________________________________________________________ Get free, personalized commercial-free online radio with MSN Radio powered by Pandora http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001 ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info