Movable Votes

Get your hands on

4

great voting rules.

See fair-share tallies organize voters.

Vote fast on budget, rules and projects.

Introducing Five Great Voting Rules

Instant Runoff Voting elects a strong executive.

Choice Voting elects a whole council.

Movable Money Votes select projects.

Pairwise Voting centers each policy.

(Budget Refill Voting funds many departments.)

Key Ideas

A Winning Share, A Movable Vote, A Wasted Vote.

A Tally Board Has

A card for each voter, A column for each option, A finish line for the favorites.

Instant Runoff Voting

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) elects one winner.

Finish line at half our cards plus one.

Eliminate the weakest if nobody wins.

Move your card if your favorite loses.

Repeat until one candidate wins!

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A Tally Board

Anna

Dropped 1st

Finish Line Anna, the weakest candidate, is dropped.

So voter JJ moves his card.

J J

Bianca

Dropped 2d

Finish Line Drop weakest.

Move cards BB moves his card.

B B G G

Cecilia

IRV winner

Finish Line B B

J J M M L L V V

Dana

Runner up

Finish Line G G

D D Z Z C C

IRV Is Used Here

IRV elects the president of Ireland, and mayors of Dublin, London, Sidney and most Australian cities. San Francisco and Minneapolis recently adopted IRV. IRV elects student leaders at 65 U.S. colleges including: Duke, Harvard, MIT, Rice, Stanford, Tufts and the universities of CA, IA, MN, NC, OK, VA, WA, WI... 7

IRV Benefits

A majority winner

.

Less negative campaigning

.

No hurting your first choice

.

No lesser-of-two-evils

.

No spoilers

.

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IRV Questions

1. How could your group use IRV? 2. Can your second-choice vote hurt your first choice?

3. Is a vote that moves bigger than other votes? Does its voter have more cards or power than other voters?

4. Can two candidates reach the 50% +1 vote finish line?

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Choice Voting

Choice Voting (CV) electing 3 reps: Finish line height is one quarter + 1. Eliminate weak candidates 1 at a time. Move your card until 3 candidates win!

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CV Is Used Here:

CV elects national legislatures or city councils in Australian, Ireland, Malta New Zealand, and Scotland. CV elects many union and church councils in Australia and England. CV elects student councils at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Harvard, Princeton, Vassar, and Whitman. Oxford, Cambridge and many other British and Australian Universities also use CV. 11

Choice Voting Increases

Choices for voters and turnout of voters, Election of minorities and women, Funding for health and education, Conformity of policies to public opinions.

The number of voters who elect reps.

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CV Questions

1. Only three candidates can reach a 25% plus one vote threshold T, F 2. What total must three CV reps win?

3. What is the threshold for winning one of five seats?

4. Can your vote for a second choice hurt your first choice?

5. How could your organization use the Choice Voting?

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Movable Money Votes

Only public goods may get public money. So an item needs support from 8 voters.

A finish line marks this level of cards.

Each column here holds just

$

2.

So a

$

4 item must fill 2 columns.

You get two 25

¢

cards and a tall 50

¢

card.

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MMV Picking Projects

Place only one card in a column.

Give your tall card to your favorite item.

Drop the item with the lowest % filled.

Drop any that cost more than all cards.

Move your card from a loser’s column.

Don’t put a vote over a full column.

Stop when all items are funded.

Each voter helps fund winners !

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MMV Setting Budgets

Each funding level is like another project. The “

$

4 OJ” level has two columns. The “

$

6 OJ” has just one more column. You must help fill the lower level first.

One at a time, the weak levels lose.

An agency starts at 80% of its old budget.

So a voter cannot, “Take a free ride.” 16

MMV Questions

1. May a voter fund a private item?

2. Should people who pay more taxes get more power to spend public money? to set public laws?

3. Should voters see grants by a rep?

4. Can your second choice hurt your first?

5. How could your groups use MMV?

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Pairwise Voting

The winner must top every rival, one-against-one. Two examples: Flag C is at the center of the group.

Three flags surround C, 5’ from it.

Ask, "Are you closer to flag A than B?

If so, please raise your hand." Then test A against C, etc.

We put each total in a Pairwise table.

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Pairwise Table

Votes for A for B for C for D A — 5 5 4 Votes against B

2

— 5 4 C

2 2

—

3

D

3 3

4 —

Pairwise Centers Policy

A pole stands at our center. It holds a short Red ribbon and a long Blue one.

If the Red ribbon gets to you, the Red policy gets your vote.

But if the Red cannot touch you, the wide appeal of the Blue policy gets your vote. Which one wins?

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Pairwise Widens Appeal

If these poles are places for a heater in an icy cold room: A) Do we put it at the center or in the biggest group? B) Do we turn on its fan to spread the heat wide? 21

Pairwise Questions

1. Can the median voter enact any policy alone?

2. Can fringe voters affect a Pairwise tally?

3. Does Pairwise favor policies with wide appeal?

4. Should first-choice votes count more?

5.

Does Pairwise set a “winning threshold”?

6.

Do votes “move” from one choice to the next?

7. Where could you use Pairwise voting?

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Full-Choice Ballots

Small groups can use tally boards. Big groups use paper ballots. Old ballots allow a “yes” vote to only one candidate, “no” to all the rest; This polarizes voters.

Full-choice ballots: Rank 1 st choice, 2 nd choice, 3 rd ... Reveal moderate points of view. 23

Vote Here

Ties are allowed. Fill only one “O” on each line. Ranks Worst Names Perot Clinton Edwards Bush

Write In

Best 1 st o o o o o 2 nd o o o o o 3 rd o o o o o 4 th o o o o o 5 th o o o o o 6 th o o o o o

Stronger Votes & Mandates

Strengthen democracy by expanding the base of power, the voters supporting the: Chairperson from a plurality to a majority; Council from a plurality to three quarters; Budget from agenda shards to the whole; Policy from a splintering sequential agenda to the strongest overall majority.

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Conclusions

Better voting rules are fast, easy and fair. They organize powerful groups supporting popular choices. Politics is more principled with fair shares for reps and money, true majorities for presidents and policies.

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Blank black slide

In Practice

AccurateDemocracy.com

has pages on the logic, uses and effects of voting rules, plus a teacher’s guide, printer ready cards and software for anonymous voting.

For anonymity on a tabletop, put your ballot in a box and pull out another voter’s, or a “mailed-in” ballot.

Only small groups can use tally boards for actual voting. Larger groups use paper ballots tallied by computer. Booklets $3.95, 20 for $59 includes shipping.

© 2003-2006, Robert Loring, [email protected]

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MMV Funds Public Goods

No “dumping”.

Put only one card in a column.

Give your tall card to your favorite item.

Don’t waste a vote on top of a full column.

Each column holds just $ .

So a costly item must fill several columns.

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Budget Refill Voting

In Budget Refill Voting for departments: A big agency has several columns to fill.

The columns each need $100... for the agency to reach last year’s budget; that is its refill line. A supporter’s card helps refill a column. Voters can push it above its goal line. But its gain is another program's loss.

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BRV by the Numbers

A council of 20 decides each item needs modest support from 10 members to restore its funding. So a column needs 10 cards from 10 voters to reach its refill line.

They want to budget 4 low-cost activities with 1 column each, plus 3 costly programs with 2 each. Those 10 columns X 10 cards to refill = 100 cards. The 100 cards / 20 voters = 5 cards for each voter; that's 1 double and 3 singles. You may put only 1 of your cards in a column. 31

BRV Sets Many Budgets

Set target budgets and prioritize them.

Reacting is key!

Stop when the timer sounds.

You lose cards that are not on the board.

A two-thirds majority may reopen voting.

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BRV Questions

1. Does each voter have movable votes?

2. Do departments have finish lines?

3. Can your second choice hurt your first?

4.

Should voters see a rep’s grants?

5. Who could use Budget Refill Voting?

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