>Very interesting idea! Reminds me of Ebay :-) >But: >> This leads to the long term average number of seats >> for the candidate matching the candidate's proportion of votes. >Can you prove this? Seems not so obvious to me...
It is based on the assumption that the "cost" in votes to get elected is roughly the same in every election. If it always costs 1000 votes to get elected and a candiate gets 300 votes, the candidate is 30% of the way to get a seat. In the simulated elections, the cost to get elected was: 182 661 619 777 952 1004 819 839 751 906 There is a ramp-up when the system is started as no low popularity candidates would have had a chance to build up votes. This gives large popularity candidates a few "cheap" seats. Also, differences in voter turnout from election to election affect how many votes needed to get elected. If a candidate gets elected in a high turnout election, then the candidate will use up more votes to get elected. However, even with +/-50% differences in voter turnout, the number of votes needed to get elected in each election changed by a smaller amount. Another option would be to force the number to be constant. If the highest candidate in the election didn't have the required number of votes, then no candidate would end up with a vote "debt" or no candidate would be elected from the district. This could be combined with it being possible for 1 district to elect more than one candidate. I think if the system was used in a multi seat district, the cost to get elected would be pretty constant anyway, so wouldn't need to be forced. In any case, the system ensures that there is no wasted votes. Finite lifetimes of candidates and voters would pose a limit though, there is little point in casting a vote that won't take effect until 100 years after you (and the candidate) are dead. One issue is that replacing an incumbent would be a multi election thing. Voting for a popular candidate who isn't the incumbent would still have the spoiler effect in that one election splitting the party vote. It would balance out in later elections. Again, multi seat districts would help with this. ___________________________________________________ Try the New Netscape Mail Today! Virtually Spam-Free | More Storage | Import Your Contact List http://mail.netscape.com ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
