this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I don't understand why the USA doesn't use preferential voting like Australia does: https://www.chickennation.com/voting/

Instead of just picking one candidate/party, you number them based on your preferences. First all the #1 votes are counted. If no party gets the majority (over 50%) of votes, the party with the least number of votes is removed, and for everyone that voted for them, their #2 votes are used. Repeat until someone wins.

Independents (what you call "third-party" in the USA) can win, and any party that gets over 4% of the #1 votes gets election funding from the government (a fixed amount per vote).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

Because both of the major parties benefit from excluding the competition.

It's kind of like, if your car won't start, you need to take it to a mechanic, but because it won't start, you can't drive it to the mechanic. We need to change how our elections work because FPTP prevents us from implementing the policies we want, but it's precisely because it prevents us from implementing the policies we want that we're unable to change it. It's a catch-22.

[–] rumba 19 points 1 week ago

We're too corrupt to allow the competition :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

There's a movement for that, but it's been moving very slow.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No party should ever have over 50% of power. Hell, no party should have more than 30%. Different parties should work together always to ensure one single party can never project it's power over those that don't want it

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

IRV, or RCV as it's being sold here, has a lot of problems.

It's the only voting system in existence where ranking someone higher on the ballot can cause them to lose the election.

Australia gets around most of the problems of IRV by just not telling people any information about the vote except the winners.

Also you only use straight IRV for a single part of your government.

The US would use it for every part of our government. It would be a shit show.

Which is why RCV has been banned in half a dozen states.

Now, there are better voting systems. Systems that live up to the hype.

STAR is the single best voting system designed to date.

As a cardinal voting system, it's actually immune to the Spoiler Effect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's the only voting system in existence where ranking someone higher on the ballot can cause them to lose the election.

Interesting... Do you have an example of this?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Disclaimer: I wrote this all for myself not to change your mind or argue. Helps if I write down my thoughts and I don't see a problem sharing. Feel free to discuss if you like.

35 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

35 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

30 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

Vs.

41 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

29 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

30 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

Alice wins

Vs.

Carol wins

Say you have:

41 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

29 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

30 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

If those 29 voters couldn't vote Third-party they would vote Democratic. So when the Third-party candidate is knocked out, their votes should favor their second pick. Democratic wins 59-41.

If it was:

41 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

29 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

30 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

Which makes more since on why the 6 votes moved to Republican because Republican was their second choice.

Then Republicans win 70-30.

In America you'd have 4 basic senarios

25 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

25 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

25 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

25 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

In RCV, Third-party wins.

Let's say this

30 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

25 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

20 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

25 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

Third-party still wins

40 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

10 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

10 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

40 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

It would be a tie

45 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

10 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

5 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

40 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

It would still be a tie

45 voters: Republican > Third-party > Democratic

5 voters: Third-party > Democratic > Republican

10 voters: Third-party > Republican > Democratic

40 voters: Democratic > Third-party > Republican

Republicans win

Let's change it to this:

35 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

35 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

30 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

Vs.

41 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

29 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

30 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

Alice wins

Vs.

Alice wins

They couldn't make their whole point if you just switched Alice and Carol. And it makes much more sense that someone with Alice second would change it to Alice first.

But when 29 votes still hold Alice as last, it does have some weight.

Something just seems off about it and it's because they cherry picked a senario that would work for their point.

Alice > Carol > Bob

Alice > Bob > Carol

Bob > Alice > Carol

Bob > Carol > Alice

Carol > Alice > Bob

Carol > Bob > Alice

There are 6 ways to vote and they leave out half of them. Then they make Carol supporters favor Alice as their second choice.

20 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

15 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

15 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

20 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

20 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

10 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

Carol eliminated, +10 Bob +20 Alice. Alice would win.

If 5 voters from Bob > Alice > Carol were moved to Alice > Bob > Carol

20 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

20 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

10 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

20 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

20 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

10 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

Alice would win

What if everyone from Bob > Alice > Carol moved to vote for Alice > Bob > Carol

20 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

30 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

0 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

20 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

20 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

10 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

It would be a tie.

In bold are the three they selected:

20 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

15 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

15 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

20 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

10 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

20 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

5 voters from Bob > Carol > Alice moved to Alice > Carol > Bob. Just like their example.

26 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

15 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

15 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

14 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

10 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

20 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

Alice 41

Bob 28

Carol 30

Bob is eliminated.

15 votes goes to Alice. 14 goes to Carol.

Alice still wins.

But they set it up like:

20 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

15 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

0 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

35 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

10 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

20 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

5 voters from Bob > Carol > Alice moved to Alice > Carol > Bob. Just like their example.

26 voters: Alice > Carol > Bob

15 voters: Alice > Bob > Carol

0 voters: Bob > Alice > Carol

29 voters: Bob > Carol > Alice

10 voters: Carol > Alice > Bob

20 voters: Carol > Bob > Alice

Then when Bob is eliminated all 29 votes go to Carol.

Then they say "It's unfair that Carol wins". When in reality those 29 people would prefer Carol over Alice.

RCV might have some flaws but that article has some flaws.

I haven't looked at the others. I might later.

Edit:Formatting

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

The first article is from someone who wants to save RCV, despite that one flaw that they've drilled into.

The problem is that it's a known attack vector, the Wikipedia article talks about how it was used intentionally by a political party in 2005 in Germany to effectively steal an additional seat in their parliament.

My second link is a deeper dive into more of RCV's many flaws. Because why stop at monotonicity? Seriously, the fact that increasing support can cause a candidate to lose, and not just lose but elect the worst choice, is insane.

That fact that there are more flaws, just as game breaking, means we should all follow the example of the Marquis de Condorcet, the guy who invented RCV, abandoned it because he saw how broken it was.

Then you have the lying liars at FairVote saying that the Condorcet criterion doesn't matter in elections.

The Condorcet criterion is that if you were to hold a series of one on one elections between all candidates, the winner of those should be the same winner of your election system. RCV fails this in most elections, which is why Condorcet abandoned it.

It wasn't until about 30 years after Condorcet's death that an Englishman revived the voting method, but added a proportional twist. It still had all the flaws that Condorcet wrote about, but Condorcet was French, and lost the political games of the French Revolution, so he was mostly ignored.

As a side note, the political writings of Condorcet should be required reading. The guy wrote this in 1790

'The rights of men stem exclusively from the fact that they are sentient beings, capable of acquiring moral ideas and of reasoning upon them. Since women have the same qualities, they necessarily also have the same rights. Either no member of the human race has any true rights, or else they all have the same ones; and anyone who votes against the rights of another, whatever his religion, colour or sex, automatically forfeits his own.'

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Thanks for the links. I appreciate it! Now I understand the issue.