Something else came up while I was analyzing some voting methods. If you have a disproportionate number of political leaning in an election, some voting systems go awry.
There may be a criterion for this, this is what I mean. Let's say that you have three total candidates. one is conservative, two are liberal, none are moderate. If the majority of the electorate is conservative, then it may make sense that a conservative gets chosen. However, in some systems - say one in which each voter gets one positive vote and one negative vote to cast - having more candidates of a particular "wing" can hurt you. Continuing this example, if we run Gore/Nader/Bush, both Gore and Nader supporters give their negative votes to Bush, casting their positive votes for their own candidate. If Gore supporters are 36%, and they vote Gore +1, Nader 0, Bush -1; and Nader supporters are 10%, and they vote Gore:0, Nader +1, Bush -1; and Bush supporters are the remaining 54% and they vote Gore -1, Nader 0, Bush +1. Nader wins. Even though 54% of the people voted for Bush. Even though only 10% voted for Nader. Is this a thing? Kind of the opposite of the spoiler effect - that having many like-minded candidates actually increases the chance that one of them might win, even if their opposition is more numerous? Does this only happen with negative votes? Or can it happen with other methods? -Benn Grant eFix Computer Consulting <mailto:b...@4efix.com> b...@4efix.com 603.283.6601
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