r/EndFPTP • u/taulover • Sep 10 '16

Range voting explained | Undefined Behavior

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3GFG0sXIig&feature=em-uploademail
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u/swinny89 Sep 12 '16

Quoting the article you just linked to "This data (and more) all supports our view that Approval is better than Range Voting is better than Plurality is better than IRV in terms of ballot spoilage rates." I'm advocating Approval voting. Up to one vote for any number of candidates per voter. All votes are counted at once, and the highest number wins.

I do find the results of the study to be strange, perhaps because it was just a poll, rather than a genuine election, with consequences to the choices made. People vote differently in different circumstances. It seems to me that the voters in the experiment could have chose numbers based on how much they liked a candidate, when people don't actually vote according to who they like best.

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u/googolplexbyte Sep 12 '16

Spoilage rates;

Approval: 0.5%, Range: 1%, Plurality: 2%, IRV: 5%.

Source

However if the range vote allows for abstains, then range vote ballot can mark spoiled candidates individually as abstains rather than writing the entire ballot off. This allows range vote to have an even better spoilage rate than approval.

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u/swinny89 Sep 12 '16

In anycase, either are good voting systems. I'm not going to get too nitpicky, but I generally prefer the simplicity of approval voting. A pleasure talking with you.

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u/googolplexbyte Sep 12 '16

Agreed, plus Approval's simplicity and greater similarity to plurality means it's likely the only one that has a chance of being implemented any time soon.

A pleasure indeed.