Here are some additional paragraphs that can be added to our
declaration. I've written them to cover some important concepts that are
currently not explained.
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"Roberts Rules of Order contain rules about voting, so any organization
that has formally adopted these rules, and has not adopted additional
overriding rules about voting, must ensure compatibility with these
rules. Roberts Rules of Order wisely require that when an officer is
elected, the winning candidate must receive a majority of votes. If none
of the candidates receives a majority on the first round of voting,
these rules require additional rounds of voting until one of the
candidates receives a majority. Very significantly the rules specify
that the candidate with the fewest votes must not be asked to withdraw.
This means that instant-runoff voting is not compatible with Roberts
Rules of Order. Also notice that Roberts Rules of Order oppose the use
of plurality voting."
"In situations that require compatibility with Roberts Rules of Order,
all of us support the use of any of our supported election methods as a
way to identify which candidate or candidates should be encouraged to
withdraw. (Before withdrawing the candidate deserves to be given an
opportunity to express support for a remaining candidate.) In this case
the supported election method is being used to identify the least
popular candidates instead of the most popular candidate. Therefore all
the available counts and calculated rankings produced by the supported
method must be shared. This information gives the candidates, and their
supporters, clear evidence as to which candidates should withdraw. The
final round of voting typically would involve either two or three
candidates, and the final round must use single-mark ballots, and the
winning candidate must receive a majority of votes."
"Almost all of us signing this declaration recommend that an
organization formally adopt a rule that specifies that one of our
supported election methods will be used to elect the organization's
officers. If there is uncertainly about which supported method to
choose, the adopted rule can specify that any of the election methods
supported by this declaration are acceptable for electing the
organization's officers, and that the current organization's officers
can choose which of our supported methods will be used in the next
election."
...
"Here is another way to summarize what we support, and what we oppose.
If voters only indicate a single, first choice on their ballot, then the
candidate with the most first-choice votes is not necessarily the most
popular, and the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is not
necessarily the least popular."
"A source of confusion for some people is the similarity between getting
the most votes and getting a majority of votes. Although it is true that
getting a majority of votes also means getting the most votes, it is not
true that getting the most votes also implies getting a majority of
votes. Expressed another way, when there are three or more candidates
and the candidate with the most first-choice votes does not receive a
majority of votes, then that means that a majority of voters oppose this
candidate (as their first choice). To resolve this situation fairly,
additional preference information must be considered."
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If anyone is putting together the pieces I've written, please let me
know. Otherwise I'll create a new draft that contains what I've
written, plus some refinements to accommodate the request that the
different Condorcet methods be explained separately (not within the main
list), plus some paragraphs to accommodate the request for statements
about multiple rounds of voting.
Richard Fobes
On 8/23/2011 9:38 PM, Ralph Suter wrote:
...
5. Finally, I think the statement could be greatly improved and made
more interesting, relevant, and compelling to a wider range of readers
by explaining that alternative voting and representation methods can
also be beneficially used for a large variety of purposes other than
general political elections and that different methods are often more
suitable for some kinds of purposes than for other purposes. Some
example of other purposes are: US-style primary elections; party
convention votes; decisions in legislative bodies and committees;
decisions by informal groups; decisions in meetings of different kinds
and sizes; uncritical or relatively minor decisions vs. major,
critically important decisions; opinion polling; TV/radio audience
voting; provisional ("straw") voting; and choosing organizational board
members and conference attendees. ...
> ...
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