Multiwinner Ranked Choice Voting Education is Feasible

I read this Ned Foley’s June 18, 2023 blog post on electionlawblog.org:

https://www.electionlawblog.org/?p=136930

Two comments:

I did not know about Jack Santucci’s recently published book “More Parties or No Parties” until I read this blog post. I knew Jack some years ago when he was either an intern or employee of FairVote (I was Treasurer of FairVote at the time), and I thought very highly of him. I have ordered the book and will read it. I am interested in seeing this “across-the-board dissatisfaction” claim fleshed out. I suspect that this dissatisfaction is only with the mentioned “parties and interest group coalitions,” and not with voters.

Regarding the claim of lack of voter education, I do not know what Arlington County, Virginia has done in this regard, but, during my nearly 25 year tenure as FairVote Treasurer, I recall Philip Macklin.

Dr. Macklin, who passed at the age of 82 in 2008, was a Physics professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He was also a strong advocate of electoral reform, specifically Multiwinner RCV, also known as Single Transferable Vote. Before many people over the years, Dr. Macklin played what I think was a FairVote-produced video explaining the Multiwinner RCV vote counting process. My recollection is it was about 12 minutes long.

Dr. Macklin said of all the people who saw the video at his presentations, only one person claimed that she did not understand the counting process after seeing it.

My own experience in speaking on this subject and playing that video was the same.


Comments

Multiwinner Ranked Choice Voting Education is Feasible — 56 Comments

  1. STV (Single Transferable Vote) ain’t that hard to understand. At least, not the basics.

    Queen Lion figured it out years ago:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

    It rewards candidates with both a strong loyal following and cross appeal. It lets you have local representatives. It lets you compare how different representatives treat their same district. It can result in multipolar, proportional representation. It shifts the burden of compromise from the citizen to the representative.

    A voting system can’t be evil. It’s not alive. It can only be biased. Only people can be evil.

  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Finnish_parliamentary_election

    HOW MANY PARTIES WON SEATS ???

    WHAT PCT OF TOTAL VOTES ELECTED A PARL MEMBER ???

    HOW FATAL ARE LEGIS/EXEC REGIMES ???

    ZERO LEARNED WITH 1933-1945 HITLER REGIME ??? — ALLIED WITH FINLAND IN 1941-1944 VS OLD USSR REGIME.

    SOMEHOW NOT TAKEN OVER BY STALIN IN 1944-1945.

    NOW- FINLAND – NATO MEMBER — NEXT TO PUTIN KILLER/MURDERER RUSSIA REGIME.

  3. Ok, I keep hearing people saying that RCV elects “Commies” and that it will “never work”. Then give us an alternative to ranked-choice voting.

  4. The current system is why we are having this discussion about ranked-choice voting now. The current system gives the Democrats and Republicans an excuse to blame third parties for their loss regardless of whether it is true or not.

    Furthermore, how can the current system be fine if people are increasingly starting to call some of these elections rigged? Most of the elections that people have been calling rigged were plurality voting systems.

  5. RCV is like a two-edged sword. If you candidate wins because of it-your happy. If your candidate loses because of it-your unhappy.

  6. Our great constitution lets each state decide for itself how to conduct its elections. Maine and Alaska are using RCV now, and other states are considering it. Some places are even considering other voting methods as well. This is as it should be.

  7. Not “somehow” not taken over. Kicked commie ass and took names repeatedly. What is it that Finns have not learned, AZ? It looks like lack of learning is on your part. Finland joined NATO in April this year, EU member since 1995, Euro (like dollar) area since 1999, Schengen area since 2001. Now NATO. Let Putin try something. His border with NATO just doubled in length.

  8. “How is this related to ballot access?”

    The method of voting used often determines how ballot access is achieved. Plurality voting and single member districts bias the system to two major parties. But, the problem for those major parties is that if someone runs outside the party system under plurality voting, there is an increased risk that someone will get elected with less than a majority, created an unsatisfactory result. However, instead of changing the voting system, the leading parties prefer to make it harder for anyone to run outside of the leading parties, which, altho it creates the appearance of a majoritarian outcome, leaves a lot of folks feeling unrepresented because they would have preferred someone other than the leading party candidates, but had not even the option to vote for someone else.

  9. Hugo is incorrect. Finland’s history of resistance to communism is indeed admirable. However, Putin and Russia today is nothing like Soviet Russia, except in our ability to beat back the Nazi or NATO invaders. German tanks are rolling across Ukraine for the first time since the Great Patriotic War, and just like then, the Ukrainian banderite fascist scum are lining up with the invasion from the west.

    The map looks much the same, with Europe and Japan lined up against Russia, and China and the Muslim south with divided loyalties. The difference is mainly on the Anglosphere this time being on the Nazi side (explicitly – the European Union and NATO are scarcely adjusted from Hitler’s original vision of Europe united under the leadership of Germany). That’s OK, because the Anglosphere proved itself scarcely important to the main action last time, and this time will be no different, despite your self-important delusions. Besides that minor footnote, they are the same battle lines as in 1941.

    Of course, many of you in the Anglosphere and Eurozone will accept uncritically the idiotic propaganda that Putin is like Hitler, or like Stalin. AZ even extends it to the laughable canard that Trump is like Hitler. These are all obvious lies. Putin hasn’t killed millions like both Stalin and Hitler did. He hasn’t called off elections – I should know, I voted against him each time, as did millions of other people.

    The map looks almost exactly the same now as then – that at least is an objective fact. It is the European Union and NATO which is more akin to Hitler this time, and the only way Putin is acting like Stalin is in defending the motherland, not in being a dictator who kills millions or suspends free elections or starves ethnic groups to death etc.

    No, Putin is nothing like Hitler and Stalin. He is a genuine Christian, not an atheist monster or a Hitleresque pagan hiding behind a social control mechanism of German Christian Church. Putin has led a Christian revival, the greatest in history to my knowledge. If there was a bigger one, when and where? And it should of course not be a surprise that Finland would ally with anyone against Russia. They were colonized in Tsarist times, after all.

  10. Once again, AZ fails to acknowledge that killing in war is not murder. We went over this in detail in other discussions yesterday. Execution of criminals is not murder, killing in self defense and defense of others is not murder. These can be righteous and consecrated actions.

    To show Putin is a killer is like showing your own country was led by killers during what you call World War II, during the cold war, and since then. For that matter, before then too. Of course, AZ isn’t happy with countries like Spain and Switzerland which wisely avoided a brothers war among White Europeans either, so he’s a killer too, or at least wants to be, or condones it.

    To show Putin is a murderer is less trivial. You need to prove the case that the special operation in Ukraine is not 100% justified (and then some), that Putin actually had something to do with the death of various people he has been accused but not proven to have ordered, or perhaps that there has been systematical and knowingly malicious application of death penalty on his orders. Good luck with any of that (not really, but you really will need it).

  11. PUTIN — THE WORLD CHIEF KILLER/MURDERER IN 2022-2023

    BLOWING UP APARTMENT BUILDINGS FULL OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN UKRAINE

    BLOWING UP OF INFRASTRUCTURE – POWER SYSTEMS IN UKRAINE

    STOPPING EXPORTS OF UKRAINE FOOD TO STARVING NATIONS

    2023 W-A-R C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L O-N-E OR 666 — LURKING IN KREMLIN OR UNDERGROUND BUNKER LIKE HITLER IN 1945

    TOO MANY PUTIN TROLL MORON APOLOGISTS TO COUNT — WITH THEIR MULTIPLE FAKE NAMES.

  12. You lie. Of course there are civilian casualties in military conflict. That’s unavoidable. Their blood is on the hands of the Ukrainian Nazi banderite fascists and traitors.

    Exporting food has continued. Infrastructure of course gets damaged in military conflict. Show me a war where those things don’t happen.

    You have shown nothing. Presiding over normal military conflict made necessary by cooperation of fascist Ukrainian thugs with EU/NATO invasion conspiracy against Russia and ethnic cleansing of Russians in areas occupied by the historically unjustified “nation” of Ukraine in the original Russian heartland is not war crime. Putin is not hiding in any bunker. He works at the Moscow Kremlin and sleeps elsewhere. This isn’t lurking. Biden is a lot more like Hitler than Putin or Trump are, except Biden is more like Quisling than like Hitler. His Hitler is perhaps Xi, or Xi mixed with von der Leyden.

    The only one proven to have multiple fake names here is AZ, formerly Demo Rep, which are both fake names. I’ve only used variations of my real name to make a point.

  13. Prigozhin says that Putin’s “special military operation” in the Ukraine is a total failure, according to Putin’s own stated objectives. He hasn’t “demilitarized” the Ukraine, but, on the contrary, Ukraine now has one of the most powerful militaries in the world, and, two, Putin hasn’t “de-Nazified” the Ukraine, or anyone else, but on the contrary, has brought the Ukraine and the Western countries into a more unified, common cause against Russia. This is according to Prigozhin, not some Western propagandist.

  14. Prigozhin has a point. There’s a lot to criticize about the course charted by Shoigu and Gerasimov. On the other hand, Putin has to chart a difficult course between moving too fast and moving too slowly. I tend to agree with Prigozhin that the danger is most likely to the slow side. I’m not as convinced he understands the risk in the other direction, much less all the difficulties Putin has to navigate.

    The same can be said of Dugin and many others. Even of myself before the last year, even into last year for that matter. Many of us have said similar things many times and many still do.

    Letting the Ukrainian fascists ethnically cleanse Russian people from our own historic lands and openly facilitate western encirclement strategy with nothing in reply wouldn’t have worked either, and Prigozhin of course suggested no such thing. His criticism is on a lower strategic and tactical level, and has some grounds certainly, but there has been no sustained loss either, and perhaps this is the best that can be done at this stage without inviting greater problems, while ample opportunity for complete victory is still quite present. In 1941-5 that took 4 years, so perhaps expecting victory after 16 months is simply premature and overeager.

  15. A nation is a state of mind, not a biological entity. Putin is learning this the hard way in the Ukraine. Xi may do so too, in Taiwan.

  16. ANOTHER FATAL FAILURE OF THE RIGGED UNITED NATIONS REGIME.

    RUSSIA VETO

    WW II TOP MORONS – ESP FDR AND CHURCHILL LETTING STALIN RIG UN CHARTER.

    RUSSIA IN UKRAINE 2022-XXXX – LIKE USA QUAGMIRE ROT IN VIETNAM 1945-1975 ???

  17. I disagree with Walter. A nation is not an idea. It has a biological basis. Nations throughout the world functioned that way, and largely still do. In the third world less so, because their lines were shifted by colonial powers deliberately to divide and conquer, and not adjusted back after independence. Stalin did the same to his own peoples.

    The USA is hybrid. On the one hand “our posterity” in the constitution is biological. At the time, virtually no one would have suggested that the founding Patriarchs meant it to extend to people who didn’t look like them. It was widely understood that freedom of religion was Christian. States still had official denominations into the 1830s. Jefferson’s idea that it applied to Mohammetans and Hindus was a radical outlier, at odds with many Patriarchs saying the United States was to be a White, Christian nation. But some bowed to illuminati deism and enlightenment liberal excesses. Jefferson was of course a hypocrite.

    Similarly the USSR was a “proposition nation” and a total disaster, collapsing of economic incompetence. It would have happened far sooner but for western aid, trade, and black market smuggling keeping it afloat.

    Ukraine doesn’t claim to be an idea or proposition nation. They claim ethnic and cultural basis, which is dubious, and even more so in 90% ethnic Russian and other Ukrainian minority areas annexed to Ukraine by Stalin and I’m some cases by Khrushchev.

    Russia is not a proposition nation. Certainly there are ethnic, cultural, racial, language, and religious minorities. But the majority, and clear fundamental basis of the Russian state, is Russian ethnicity, language, culture, Russian Orthodox Church, and White European roots, mixed with a certain degree of Asian blood and culture to form a uniquely Eurasian civilization, but with the European part still dominant.

    Taiwan is not purely propositional, either. There is a native ethnic group there, plus Japanese historical influence. It does indeed remain to be seen how quickly and easily Xi will take it. Or how quickly he’ll move to do so. It’s obviously vulnerable to blockade, being an island.

    Russia in Ukraine can’t be compared to US in Vietnam. Vietnam is across an ocean, with no historic, cultural, languages, ethnic or other ties to US. It was never part of the same cpuntry. Ukraine has all those ties to Russia. The American 18th century secession and the 19th century unsuccessful Confederate secession are more like the conflict in Ukraine than the Vietnam conflict was.

    It’s also not necessarily a quagmire. 16 months into the Great Patriotic War you may have thought it could turn into a quagmire. It didn’t. A couple of months later, the tide turned at Stalingrad, and we went on to victory. There is no reason to think it will elude us here.

  18. Who else is a proposition nation? Israel? Vatican? UK?

    Make your case.

    Certainly not Germany, Spain, France, Italy…clearly ethnic basis nations, or will Walter argue otherwise?

  19. GOVTS = NATION-STATES = ARBITRARY AREAS WITH ARBITRARY GROUPS OF HUMANS.

    FEDERAL REGIMES – 2 OR MORE NATION-STATES.
    ————-
    WHAT GANG FORMED ***RUSSIA*** ???

    — INITIAL AREA WAS WHAT BLOB PART OF EUROPE ???

    HOW MANY CONQUESTS BY DEADLY FORCE [AKA KILLINGS/MURDERS) OF OTHER GANGS/TRIBES FOR HOW MANY CENTURIES ???

    ANY DIFFERENT FROM CURRENT EUROPEAN / ASIAN REGIMES ???

    P-A-T

  20. What is this nonsense, AZ? MAX IS RIGHT.

    Russia is an ethnostate. It’s not a gang or arbitrary area. It did expand over time. But it has historic cohesion around a common language, ethnicity, culture, and religion, despite being a federal republic with many minorities. Every country has minorities, but so what?

    If Germans made up 90% of population in parts of Russia, it would make sense to give them to Germany. Mexicans are using this “reconquista” strategy in the US SW now. It’s one of the reasons there needs to be a halt and reversal to immigration from Mexico and Latin America.

    I’m not sure what AZ is trying to suggest as an alternative. World government? If not that, what’s his answer?

  21. The US SW is not the only area facing this issue. Europe is beset with Muslim immigration. If enough takes place and they become too settled in and interwoven, the battles won by Charles Martel and at the gates of Vienna will be lost anew.

    But the EU globalist leadership wants it that way. They want harmonization with China and global government. Ignorant, semiliterate, dumbed down, racially mixed, idolatrous, genetically and culturally inferior populations are easier for globalists to control and easier to manipulate along the slaughterhouse path to 90% of humanity killed and the rest turned into a racially mixed, multiculti, dumbed down, idolatrous, subservient race of slaves to a tiny globalist elite, both imprisoned in a panopticon world government with zero freedom of movement, thought, speech, press, religion, assembly, self defense, etc.

  22. THINGS HAPPEN IN ROTTED REGIMES –

    PRIME EXAMPLE — OLDE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN REGIME–
    DARK AGE MONARCHY-OLIGARCHY IN 1914
    WITH MULTIPLE GROUPS FORCED TO BE IN THE SAME REGIME.

    SUB-POLITICAL AREAS HAVING GROUPS REALLY UN-HAPPY WITH NEARBY GROUPS – POLITICS/LANGUAGES/CUSTOMS.

    THUS A-H TAKEOVER OF BOSNIA >>> 1914 KILLING OF A-H CROWN PRINCE

    A-H GANGSTERS BLAME SERBIA AND DECLARES WAR.
    RUSSIA DEFENDS SERBIA.
    GERMANY WITH LUNATIC KILLER KAISER BILL DECLARES WAR ON RUSSIA. ETC.

    ALL THE MAJOR EMPIRES [OF MONARCHS/OLIGARCHS] DESTROYED OR GREATLY WEAKENED IN WW I.

    LENIN GANG OF KILLERS TAKE OVER OF OLDE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

  23. Trump, Putin, Lukashenko, and Euroskeptic nationalists are the last, best hope to save European Christian civilization and thwart the nefarious plans of the Luciferian illuminati globalists and their satanic new world order of the ages.

  24. Austrohungarian empire and tower of Babel are two examples of the downsides of multiculturalism. The European Union is certainly another.

  25. NATO and UN are two additional tools of the globalists. There are many others.

  26. @AZ,

    It is not clear what your point is with regard to Finnish elections. Is there a connection to the use of STV in Arlington?

  27. Max sounds like a white supremacist skinhead.

    Putin is a lot like Hitler. Today Ukraine, tomorrow the world. And Stalin. Calling everyone Nazi. I think he admires Stalin? And buddies with Xi? What’s that about?

    I repeat, bring it on. We’ll beat Putin like our grandfathers beat Stalin and their fathers did Lenin.

  28. Hugo,

    I assure you my shaved head is due strictly to make pattern baldness, and has nothing at all to do with politics or musical tastes (classical or chamber music, traditional Russian folk music, and opera, mostly). Sartorially, I prefer Brioni and Kiton suits to top gun jackets and jeans or army pants, at least since the 1980s, which was also probably the last time I wore a concert t-shirt. Generally speaking, I prefer wingtips, loafers and oxfords to steel toed factory boots, except perhaps when visiting a manufacturing facility. I do like to wear suspenders, but that’s about the only thing I have in common with such gutter trash drunken louts and (more or less closeted) homosexuals with penal colonies as both a career pinnacle and retirement plan.

    Your tomorrow the world logic is backwards from Ukraine being a legitimate nation, an assumption I don’t share. Putin doesn’t call everyone a nazi; but people who act like Nazis, like the western powers encircling and threatening Russia or the Ukrainian fascists openly parading about with Nazi symbols and slogans and celebrating Nazi collaborators, they deserve to be called out for their Nazism.

    Stalin was certainly a horrible dictator. There are, however, some things about him to admire. He unquestionably took us from backward nation to global superpower, from the horse drawn cart to the atomic age, and defeated Nazi invaders. It came at too high a price in human lives and freedom, certainly. Despite persistent libel, there’s nothing to indicate Putin would go to anywhere near such lengths.

    Xi must be handled deftly. Not with craven supplication as shown by Biden and European globalist harmonized. We can’t afford economic or shooting wars to the west and east at the same time. Any communications with or about Xi that Putin makes should be considered with those facts in mind. We have a land border with China, unlike the US, anyone in NATO or EU, etc.

    Finns were certainly fierce and admirable fighters in the early 20th century, and no doubt would be today. They did well to largely avoid both the Bolshevik and German orbits for the past century plus. I hope any military conflict between out countries in the future is avoided.

    AZ has demonstrated ethnic prejudice against Russian people, so it would not be surprising if he has the same against Finns. He’s generally a feeble minded, senile individual, perhaps of the age and dementia level of Joe Biden. Among his biggest whoppers: Trump is just like Hitler, except that Hitler went to jail ; USA is a monarchy; the biggest mistake he ever made was a typo; and possibly, that he is God, if AZ is meant to signify the Alpha and the Omega.

  29. @AZ,

    Are four coalition parties bad?

    Are you concerned that the use of STV in Arlington County will result in a coalition government?

  30. JR-

    THE FATAL THING IS THE SAME PERSONS HAVING BOTH MAJOR LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE POWERS IN PARL REGIMES

    = 2/3 TYRANTS — PER MADISON FEDERALIST # 47

    SEE OLDE UK IN 1776. SEE HITLER IN 1933-1945.

    WAITING FOR DETAILS OF STV RESULT IN VA.
    —–
    OTHER

    UAW LABOR UNION ELECTION RESULTS – ALL MAIL BALLOTS

    https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2023/06/21/uaw-election-results-certified/70340432007/

    UAW monitor certifies leadership election results, but not everyone is ready to move on

    LIKELY STRIKE IN SEP-OCT 2023 BY USUAL SUSPECTS

  31. https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/County-Board/About-the-County-Board

    About the County Board
    The five-member County Board is Arlington’s governing body and is vested with its legislative powers.

    Board Members are elected At-Large, and serve staggered four-year terms. Board members elect a Chair and Vice Chair at the annual January Organizational meeting.

    The Chair, the official County head, sets agendas for Board meetings and presides over the meetings.

    The Chair and the Vice Chair have the same powers and duties as other Board members — a vote, but no veto power.

    BEING AT LARGE = ZERO REAL REPRESENTATION FOR 49.99 PCT MINORITIES.

    STANDARD SOUTHERN STATES SYSTEM ???

    P-A-T

  32. https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/County-Board/Ranked-Choice-Voting

    Ranked-Choice Voting

    Frequently Asked Questions

    1. What is ranked-choice voting? 

    Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is an election method that allows voters the option to rank candidates in order of preference (first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on).

    Ranking candidates is different from simply selecting one candidate or what is known as plurality voting. (source: https://www.rcvresources.org/what-is-rcv)

    2. How does ranked-choice voting work? 
    If a candidate receives more than half of the first choices, that candidate wins, just like in any other election.

    However, if there is no majority winner after counting the first choices, the race is decided by an instant runoff.

    The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who ranked that candidate as their first choice will have their votes count for their next choice. This process continues until a majority winner, or a candidate won, with more than half of the vote.

    Ranked-choice voting works equally well when there are multiple seats to fill. The threshold for winning is adjusted depending on the number of seats to fill.

    A similar process of eliminating and electing candidates through rounds of counting occurs until all the seats are filled. (source: https://www.rcvresources.org/what-is-rcv) 

    3. Do I have to rank candidates?

    Can I just choose one? 

    No, you may rank as few candidates as you like. You may choose just one candidate on the form. 

    4. Will every office on the ballot – federal, state, and local – be by ranked-choice vote? 

    No, ranked choice voting in the June [2023] primaries will only be for Arlington County Board candidates. 

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