Election reform in the US must take into account the advances in election method science.
by Michael Ossipoff
I’ve just posted a rank-balloting poll, on political party platforms in the United States, at the Condorcet Internet Voting Service website, operated by a professor at Cornell University. That website gives us a selection among several rank-counts. One of their count options is Condorcet-IRV and this is the rank-count method that I chose. To help you understand the poll before voting, here is the definition of the Condorcet-IRV rank-count:
Do IRV until there is an un-eliminated alternative that isn’t pairwise-beaten by any other un-eliminated alternative. Elect that unbeaten altetrnative. Definition of “pairwise-beaten”: If more ballots rank X over Y, than Y over X, then X pairwise-beats Y.
An example of runoff voting. Runoff voting involves two rounds of voting.
IRV stands for “Instant Runoff” and here is its brief count rule:
Repeatedly, cross off or delete from the rankings the alternative that currently tops the fewest rankings. When only one alternative remains un-eliminated, it wins.
Though I feel that the Favorite-Betrayal Criterion is essential for our official public elections, under current conditions, I no longer consider it necessary for polling, where media disinformation has much less effect. Therefore IRV, and it’s Condorcet-complying hybrids, can be used. Those methods have a powerful combination of properties: they meet the Mutual Majority Criterion, and they’re completely free of the chicken dilemma. So I chose Condorcet-IRV as the count option for my poll at Condorcet Internet Voting Service (CIVS).
When setting up my Party Platforms poll at the Condorcet Internet Voting Service, I selected for it to start with a “write-in” period, during which write-ins can be added by anyone.
During that brief period for 2 days, beginning with the publication of this article at Democracy Chronicles, voting can’t be done — only write-ins. Then, after 2 days have elapsed since the publication of the poll, I’ll set it to receive votes. So, if you’re willing to vote in my Party Platforms Condorcet-IRV poll at the Condorcet Internet Voting Service, remember that the first 2 days will be for write-ins, if any, and then there will be 7 days for voting.
Here is the wording of the poll itself:
Rank the ballot’s party platforms in order of preference. The party platforms’ URLs are listed below. It is recommended that, before voting, you look at a few of the platforms.
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson and his Green opponent Jill Stein
This poll counts rankings by Condorcet-IRV, the most strategy-free of the rank-counts. It guarantees that if a mutual majority rank sincerely, the winner will come from the set of alternatives that they all prefer to the other alternatives. Additonally, that rank-count is free of the chicken dilemma. There is no need to do other than rank sincerely. Here are the party platforms:
Only the single favorite choice will win the poll. The poll ends May 28, 2013, 0500 GMT. The poll supervisor is Michael Ossipoff. Comment below if you need help.
Michael Ossipoff writes for Democracy Chronicles from Miami, Florida and is one of our earliest and most prolific authors and creators. His writing covers the world of election method reform verifiable election counts and the importance of independent and third party candidates.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Michael Ossipoffsays
During the poll’s write-in period, 7 additional parties were written-in, bringing the total number of parties in the poll to 11.
Here are the partis now in the poll:
Democrat
Republican
Greens (GPUS)
Green Party USA [the other Green Party, the original Greens]
Socialist Party USA
Communist Party USA
Libertarian party
Boston Tea Party [based on Ron Paul’s platform
…not to be confused with the Tea Party Movement]
Reform Party
Constitutiono Party
Objectivist Party [based on Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy]
With 5 votes so far, the winner so far is the Greens (GPUS), which currently pairwise-beats each of the other parties.
Poll results for far, in party-platforms rank-balloting poll at Condorcet Internet Voting Service:
As of today, April 7th, with 25 ballots cast, the Greens (GPUS) are winning. They pairwise-beat each one of the other parties.
That mean that, when compared separately to each other party, more ballots rank GPUS over that other party, than vice-versa.
Voting-system terminology refers to such a winner as the “Condorcet winner”.
The party that finishes 2nd is the other Green party, the G/GPUSA, the socialist Greens.
Finishing 3rd, in a tie with eachother, are the Libertarian party and the Socialist Party USA.
The “output ranking”, showing the order in which the various parties finish, is displayed at the website linked to in the article, above.
——————–
In our Plurality (Vote-For-1) voting system, when there are unacceptable candidates who could win (like Democrats and Republicans), the optimal strategy is to combine votes on the most winnable acceptable candidate.
For progressives (people who want government to be more humane and egalitarian, and more honest, and uncorrupt), the acceptable candidates are the progressive candidates.
And, by far, the most winnable progressive candidate, in any election, is the GPUS (Green) nominee.
Vote honestly, for what you want. Vote progressive. Vote Green.
Michael Ossipoff says
During the poll’s write-in period, 7 additional parties were written-in, bringing the total number of parties in the poll to 11.
Here are the partis now in the poll:
Democrat
Republican
Greens (GPUS)
Green Party USA [the other Green Party, the original Greens]
Socialist Party USA
Communist Party USA
Libertarian party
Boston Tea Party [based on Ron Paul’s platform
…not to be confused with the Tea Party Movement]
Reform Party
Constitutiono Party
Objectivist Party [based on Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy]
With 5 votes so far, the winner so far is the Greens (GPUS), which currently pairwise-beats each of the other parties.
Michael Ossipoff
April 2nd, 2013
Michael Ossipoff says
Poll results for far, in party-platforms rank-balloting poll at Condorcet Internet Voting Service:
As of today, April 7th, with 25 ballots cast, the Greens (GPUS) are winning. They pairwise-beat each one of the other parties.
That mean that, when compared separately to each other party, more ballots rank GPUS over that other party, than vice-versa.
Voting-system terminology refers to such a winner as the “Condorcet winner”.
The party that finishes 2nd is the other Green party, the G/GPUSA, the socialist Greens.
Finishing 3rd, in a tie with eachother, are the Libertarian party and the Socialist Party USA.
The “output ranking”, showing the order in which the various parties finish, is displayed at the website linked to in the article, above.
——————–
In our Plurality (Vote-For-1) voting system, when there are unacceptable candidates who could win (like Democrats and Republicans), the optimal strategy is to combine votes on the most winnable acceptable candidate.
For progressives (people who want government to be more humane and egalitarian, and more honest, and uncorrupt), the acceptable candidates are the progressive candidates.
And, by far, the most winnable progressive candidate, in any election, is the GPUS (Green) nominee.
Vote honestly, for what you want. Vote progressive. Vote Green.
Michael Ossipoff
Adrian Tawfik says
Go Greens!
Michael Osspoff says
With 32 votes so far, the Greens are still far ahead, the big winner.
In first place in the output ranking is the GPUS.
In 2nd place is the other Green party, G/GPUSA.
If you haven’t voted yet, scroll up in the article, and click on the link to the voting page.
If you’ve already voted, you can check the results as follows:
Scroll up in this article, to the link to voting, and then, from there, click on “results”, at the bottom of the page.
Michael Ossipoff