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0 pointsgodelski3y ago0 comments

> It's simple addition.

Not quite. The tallying algorithm is `while (no candidate > 50% of votes): pop min(candidates), reallocate_votes(min(candidates))`. On the other hand cardinal methods are `argmax(sum(candidates))`. For comparison, FPTP is `argmax(sum(candidates))` too. The only difference is that FPTP is a one-hot vector. I'd argue that the average person intuitively understands cardinal methods without any training.

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3 comments · 2 top-level

theptip3y ago· 1 in thread

You're right, my bad. Computing `reallocate_votes()` is not as trivial as I suggested.

I do wonder if many people actually care to work through that step; in all of the public discourse around the Alaska vote, it's simply presented as a table with the reallocations already summed. For example, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-democrats-win-in-a....

The general algorithm of "reallocate the votes from the candidate that is being eliminated" is conceptually simple, even if it's annoying to tabulate. I do stand by my claim that it would be very easy to build a website that can visualize this process without getting bogged down in the tabulation. See every site that's giving analysis on the Alaska results for examples.

I want to see actual UX studies on this; for example has anyone polled in Alaska to see whether people understand the result?

godelskiOP3y ago

> Computing `reallocate_votes()` is not as trivial as I suggested.

I agree that it isn't hard, but I'm glad we both agree it isn't trivial.

> I do wonder if many people actually care to work through that step

I don't think most people care to be honest. But I think what does matter is recount events. I often point to what happened in Arizona as a perfect example. It would be substantially easier to create a narrative that an election is rigged if the tallying is more complicated. Malicious people like to hide in complexity and will often oversimplify a complex topic. Because of this, I think one of the most important factors in creating a secure election is ensuring that the tallying system is simple. While malicious actors will always act maliciously, we can reduce their effectiveness through this simplicity.

ajmurmann3y ago

To add to the simplicity case: STAR and Approval voting are on essence how many online rating systems like IMDB, Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes work. Those seem very intuitive to users. (Edit: ignoring cases where those platforms hide votes etc)

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