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

[Stephen Bain]

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.

STV works very nicely here in Australia, and it would be a good system
to use, IMHO.

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com