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

[Peter van Londen]

2007/7/14, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org>:
>
> On 7/13/07, Michael Snow <wikipedia at att.net> wrote:
> > Instead, I would suggest keeping our present voting system in some form,
> > but also making the decision faced by the voter more explicit. This can
> > be done by presenting the voter with two choices for each candidate -
> > Yes and No, or Approve and Disapprove if you prefer. This makes clear
> > what you want the voter to tell you, and that the voter is answering
> > this question independently for each candidate.
>
> Our elections, being very open to candidates and international in
> scope, will typically have many candidates voters are unfamiliar with.
> Do we therefore need an "oppose" (-1) vs. "abstain" (0) vote? It could
> lead to more negative campaigning ("vote against candidate X, to stop
> Y from happening!") and more strategic voting ("I'll vote against
> everyone except my favorite candidate"). My biggest concern, however,
> is that it would disadvantage active and outspoken candidates over
> inactive or silent ones, as it is virtually impossible to be active
> and outspoken without offending a minority of voters, who would then
> have new means to "punish" a candidate.
>
> That said, if we do not add "-1" voting, but choose to make the voting
> choices "disapprove" and "abstain" explicit, we should also make it
> clear to voters that they have exactly the same effect.
>
> One other simple method to reduce confusion about the fact that voters
> can choose multiple candidates is to include an illustrated example
> ballot on the voting page.
> --
> Toward Peace, Love & Progress:
> Erik


I totally agree with your statement here. The NL-Arbcom is  chosen in the
proposed way and this is in my opinion unnecessary disruptive (especially
because of the75% approve criterion a disapprove vote counts 4 times).

I would not advice to change the voting system as there is no system where
you could not vote strategically as well.

Kind regards
Londenp

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