RE: [Condorcet] File - CSSD Statute XML

Nixon, Rep. Toby Nixon.Toby at leg.wa.gov
Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:18:44 -0700

We always talk as though there is one race, but there can be an unlimited number of races on any ballot. Each race is dealt with independently. A key point is that if a ballot is "spoiled" for one race, it affects only that race, and other races are considered independently.

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From: Condorcet@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Simmons, Forest
Sent: Thu 4/13/2006 3:08 PM
To: Condorcet@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Condorcet] File - CSSD Statute XML


I have a question regarding the Ballot and Voting sections of the proposed statutory language below.

The language seems to assume that there is only one race per ballot, for example where it specifies that 

"The ballot shall provide a way for voters to rank any or all of the
candidates listed on the ballot--as many or as few candidates as they wish
to rank."

But most ballots that I have encountered have multiple races on them.

Is this proposal only for the Governor's race?  If so, would all other races to be decided by the same voters on the same election day require a different ballot?

It seems to me that the best way to handle this problem is to distinguish between the actual ballots and the CSSD input rankings

The ballots, i.e. the instruments that the voters interface with, are a means of collecting rankings from the voters.  Those rankings (not the ballots) are the inputs to the CSSD method.

Wouldn't it be better to de-couple the ballot definition from the definition of CSSD.  It seems to me that CSSD should be defined to take as its input a collection of rankings or partial rankings, not a set of ballots. 

Otherwise, you get multiple versions of CSSD, depending on ballot features, such as how many races are allowed per ballot, whether or not the alternatives are people or some other kind of alternatives.

Perhaps this was already the intent of those who composed the current language.  If so, it should be clarified.

Here's the current proposal that was emailed recently to the Condorcet Listserv:



<EM>
Schwartz Sequential Dropping:

<BALLOT>
Rank-balloting definitions:

To rank a candidate means to assign to that candidate a postive integer that
will be referred to as a rank number.

To rank X over Y means to assign to X a rank number that is lower than the
rank number that one assigns to Y, or else to assign a rank number to X, but
not to Y.

Balloting:

The ballot shall provide a way for voters to rank any or all of the
candidates listed on the ballot--as many or as few candidates as they wish
to rank.
</BALLOT>

<VOTING>
A voter may assign the same rank number to more than one candidate if s/he
wants to--as many as s/he wishes to.

A ballot is spoiled and not counted if it assigns more than one rank number
to any one candidate.
</VOTING>

\

Here's my suggestion for a way of clarifying this proposal:

<RANKING>

A ranking of candidates or other alternatives is an assignment of natural numbers to members of the set of alternatives.  

If  alterantive  X  is assigned a number, and alternative Y is assigned either a higher number or no number, then  X  is said to be ranked over Y.

<BALLOTING>

The Schwartz Sequential Dropping (SSD) method (defined below) requires a collection of rankings as its input.  Therefore, a co-requisite for adoption of  SSD is that there be some way of collecting ranking information from the voters for each set of alternatives that is to be decided by the SSD method.

A "ranking ballot" is any instrument that allows each voter to specify a ranking for each set of alternatives that are to be ranked.

<VOTING>

Voting is the act of marking a ballot.

<Schwartz Sequential Dropping>

etc.

FWS



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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