[Foundation-l] The average voter and voting systems (was Re: Notice of the results of the WMF Board of Trustees election)

[Delphine Ménard]

On 7/13/07, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/13/07, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > While I think the Single Transferrable Vote is the best voting system, the
> > electorate probably is not sophisticated enough to grasp it, and vote
> > counting on it with the number of seats and candidates we have, would be a
> > positive nightmare, so yes, I am absolutely in agreement with the
> > paragraph above.
>
> It's easier if you make preferences optional (ie, if people don't have
> to number all the way to the end of the list). That can result in more
> exhausted votes than otherwise, but it's a worthwhile tradeoff I
> think.
>
> I don't know if STV is that hard to explain anyway, at least, if you
> give a simplified explanation: first you number all the candidates in
> order of preference (1 being your first preference). If your #1
> preference doesn't win, your vote goes to your #2 preference, and so
> on.

Just because I am not familiar with STV.  On a list of say 10
candidates, can you chose to number the number of candidates that you
want, or do you have to number all candidates?

Thanx,

Delphine

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