Yes, this article didn't increase the scientific credibility of the
rangevoting site much :-).
> So given this, we suggest to you that based on the data that we
have, and until any evidence comes along to the contrary, you should
conclude that IRV disfavors racial minorities.
Eating ice cream causes drowning. There is plenty of evidence. Just
check the summertime and wintertime statistics and be convinced.
In this case one statistical IRV example seemed to justify the
conclusions.
Was there a hidden conclusion that plurality would not hurt
minorities, or would not hurt them as much as IRV?
I also didn't see any proposed theory on why IRV would hurt (racial
or other) minorities. Is there one? (How about a single-member
district based theory?)
- - -
More serious now.
One comment on single-member districts. I think a more typical case
where single-member districts may be useful (when we otherwise prefer
proportional representation of all the groupings) is the case where
we have a minority that is too small to be represented proportionally
(requires multiple seats) but we want to guarantee that this minority
always gets at least one seat. In such case it may be in the interest
of that minority (and the whole community) to elect just one
representative that is supposed to represent all the different
sections within that minority.
Also in this case methods that guarantee that single seat to be
elected always but still maintain proportionality are possible. Here
I'm thinking about methods that would force different districts to
elect representatives so that the total sum of representatives will
be in proportion to the received votes (and maybe also other criteria
like regional representation, gender etc.).
In both approaches there is also the risk that the small region in
question would be continuously represented by the largest local
grouping. There are also ways to fix that. One could e.g. guarantee
proportionality in time (by remembering the results of the last
election when counting the results of the following election, or by
splitting one single term in smaller parts). This may get complex
though, so the basic single-member districts may in many cases be
enough.
Juho
On Jul 29, 2008, at 2:09 , James Gilmour wrote:
Warren Smith > Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 10:58 PM
A web page analysing this topic is here
http://rangevoting.org/IRVraceMinorities.html
Whatever the merits or demerits of any single-winner voting system
in respective of minority representation, if you are serious
about representation of minorities, you start by electing the
representative assembly by a sound system of proportional
representation in which all representatives are elected from multi-
member districts (upper limit: whole country = one electoral
district). Single-winner voting systems in single-member districts
should not be used to elect representative assemblies, except in
the rare situation where one or two electoral districts are so
large and so sparsely populated that only a single-member district
makes sense.
James Gilmour
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