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Technical discussion of election methods

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Update from a real Condorcet deployment

AM
Andrew Myers
Sat, Nov 7, 2015 10:06 PM

We recently crossed some thresholds over at civs.cs.cornell.edu:

  • more than 10,000 Condorcet polls run
  • more than 200,000 total votes cast

CIVS is regularly used by organizations whose names you might recognize
to make decisions with real-world impact. Here are a few of them:

Ubuntu
OpenStack
Linux Foundation
SUNY Fredonia
Iowa State University
University of Mary Washington

The source code for CIVS can now be found on GitHub:
https://github.com/andrewcmyers/civs. Contributions are generally
welcome.

Regards,

Andrew Myers
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Cornell University
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru

We recently crossed some thresholds over at civs.cs.cornell.edu: - more than 10,000 Condorcet polls run - more than 200,000 total votes cast CIVS is regularly used by organizations whose names you might recognize to make decisions with real-world impact. Here are a few of them: Ubuntu OpenStack Linux Foundation SUNY Fredonia Iowa State University University of Mary Washington The source code for CIVS can now be found on GitHub: https://github.com/andrewcmyers/civs. Contributions are generally welcome. Regards, Andrew Myers Professor, Department of Computer Science Cornell University http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru
RL
Richard Lung
Mon, Nov 9, 2015 6:38 PM

Hello Prof. Myers,

Just reading your message, I would guess these Condorcet polls are
proportionately weighted.
It can make a big difference, even over-turn a whole theoretical edifice.
I once (in a book called Beyond Numeracy)came across a contrived
election example, using five different voting systems, all disagreeing
with each other. (I have seen its like, even on the most prestigious of
web-sites.) I don't blame it for being contrived. But it was obvious
that the different out-comes were the inevitable result of using more or
less rudimentary counting procedures, including First Past The Post,
Supplementary Vote and Instant Run-off Voting/Alternative Vote.
Then I checked whether a fourth system of Condorcet pairings of
candidates were weighted.And they weren't. (I had learned weighting from
statistics. I didn't know it was already a recognised election method,
by Kemeny, I believe.)

I did the arithmetic. Lo and behold! Weighted Condorcet now agreed with
the fifth method, Borda method, on the most popuar candidate. These were
the two methods that made best use of the preferential information. My
old statistics lecturer said the best statistical test is the one that
makes the most use of the information. Here was a demonstration of that
truth for election methods.
Yet the whole purpose of that text example had been to prove the
opposite, contending that there is no best election method, as
demonstrated by the criteria of social choice theory.

I have discussed these matters in my second of two e-books on election
reform and research, whose links I just posted on this e-mail forum.

From Richard Lung.

On 07/11/2015 22:06, Andrew Myers wrote:

We recently crossed some thresholds over at civs.cs.cornell.edu:

  • more than 10,000 Condorcet polls run
  • more than 200,000 total votes cast

CIVS is regularly used by organizations whose names you might
recognize to make decisions with real-world impact. Here are a few of
them:

Ubuntu
OpenStack
Linux Foundation
SUNY Fredonia
Iowa State University
University of Mary Washington

The source code for CIVS can now be found on GitHub:
https://github.com/andrewcmyers/civs. Contributions are generally welcome.

Regards,

Andrew Myers
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Cornell University
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru


Election-Methods mailing list - seehttp://electorama.com/em  for list info

Hello Prof. Myers, Just reading your message, I would guess these Condorcet polls are proportionately weighted. It can make a big difference, even over-turn a whole theoretical edifice. I once (in a book called Beyond Numeracy)came across a contrived election example, using five different voting systems, all disagreeing with each other. (I have seen its like, even on the most prestigious of web-sites.) I don't blame it for being contrived. But it was obvious that the different out-comes were the inevitable result of using more or less rudimentary counting procedures, including First Past The Post, Supplementary Vote and Instant Run-off Voting/Alternative Vote. Then I checked whether a fourth system of Condorcet pairings of candidates were weighted.And they weren't. (I had learned weighting from statistics. I didn't know it was already a recognised election method, by Kemeny, I believe.) I did the arithmetic. Lo and behold! Weighted Condorcet now agreed with the fifth method, Borda method, on the most popuar candidate. These were the two methods that made best use of the preferential information. My old statistics lecturer said the best statistical test is the one that makes the most use of the information. Here was a demonstration of that truth for election methods. Yet the whole purpose of that text example had been to prove the opposite, contending that there is no best election method, as demonstrated by the criteria of social choice theory. I have discussed these matters in my second of two e-books on election reform and research, whose links I just posted on this e-mail forum. From Richard Lung. On 07/11/2015 22:06, Andrew Myers wrote: > > We recently crossed some thresholds over at civs.cs.cornell.edu: > > * more than 10,000 Condorcet polls run > * more than 200,000 total votes cast > > CIVS is regularly used by organizations whose names you might > recognize to make decisions with real-world impact. Here are a few of > them: > > Ubuntu > OpenStack > Linux Foundation > SUNY Fredonia > Iowa State University > University of Mary Washington > > The source code for CIVS can now be found on GitHub: > https://github.com/andrewcmyers/civs. Contributions are generally welcome. > > Regards, > > Andrew Myers > Professor, Department of Computer Science > Cornell University > http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru > > > > ---- > Election-Methods mailing list - seehttp://electorama.com/em for list info