A voting system is a process that allows a group of people to express
their desires about a number of options, and selects one or more of
those options as the winner based on the votes. Voting is best known
for its use in democratic elections, in which case the options are
candidates for public office, and the preferences of the citizens
determine who gets to hold those offices. Specifically, a voting
system is a well-defined method (an algorithm) that determines a
winning result given a set of votes. The process must be formally
defined to be considered a voting system; the rules that specify how
the votes will be counted must be known beforehand. This can be
contrasted with consensus decision making, another process for
selecting an option based on people's preferences which, unlike a
voting system, does not specify a precise way to determine the winning
option. Most voting systems are based on the concept of majority rule,
or the principle that a group of more than half of the voters should
be able to get the outcome they want. Given the simplicity of majority
rule, those who are unfamiliar with voting theory are often surprised
that such a variety of voting systems exists.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_system
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1661:
Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempted to
seize control of London from the newly restored government of Charles
II.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Monarchists)
1838:
Samuel Morse successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the
first time.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electrical_telegraph)
1907:
Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for
working class children in Rome.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)
1995:
A suspicious fire in a Manila flat led to the unfoiling of Oplan
Bojinka, a precursor to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplan_Bojinka)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a
world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom
of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is
freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere
in the world. The third is freedom from want... everywhere in the
world. The fourth is freedom from fear... anywhere in the world. That
is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a
kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. -- Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt)