Software that calculates VoteFair ranking results is now available in an
open-source version.
The CPAN version of the VoteFair-ranking module is easy to install and
runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and (if Strawberry Perl is installed) Windows.
Here is the link:
http://search.cpan.org/~fobes/Voting-VoteFairRanking-5.00/lib/Voting/VoteFairRanking.pm
(Or you can do a Google search for "VoteFair ranking cpan".)
Installation instructions for a full demo -- that reads sample election
data from an XML file and generates an HTML web page showing the results
-- is available here:
https://github.com/cpsolver/VoteFair-ranking
Changing the results to a language other than English can be done by
editing a small text file.
VoteFair ranking is described at www.VoteFair.org and in the book
"Ending The Hidden Unfairness In U.S. Elections".
The current version (5.00) implements these portions of VoteFair Ranking:
* VoteFair popularity ranking. This voting method calculates the full
popularity ranking of all candidates (or choices in the case of a
survey) from most popular and second-most popular down to least popular.
It uses the preference information collected on 1-2-3 ballots (or any
equivalent way of expressing "ranked" preferences). When a single
position is being filled, the most popular candidate is declared the
winner. This calculation method is mathematically equivalent to the
Condorcet-Kemeny election method.
* VoteFair representation ranking. This voting method is used to elect
a second candidate who represents the voters who are not
well-represented by the most-popular candidate, or to fill multiple
board-of-director positions, or to choose a second simultaneous activity
in addition to the most popular activity. This method reduces the
influence of the voters who are already well-represented by the most
popular candidate (or choice), and it does so in a way that protects
against strategic voting. If instead the second-most popular candidate
(as identified by VoteFair popularity ranking) were chosen, the same
voters who prefer the first winner also can determine the second winner,
and this can leave large numbers of other voters unrepresented.
Additional levels of representation ranking can be used to fill
additional seats, although VoteFair partial-proportional ranking should
be used instead if "proportional representation" of political parties is
needed, especially for the purpose of defeating attempts to gerrymander
district boundaries.
* VoteFair party ranking. This voting method ranks political parties
according to a different kind of "popularity". The results can be used
in high-stakes elections to limit the number of candidates allowed by
each party. In such cases the two or three political parties that are
ranked highest can be limited to offering just two candidates from each
party, and lower-ranked parties can be allowed to offer one candidate
each, and any additional parties can be prohibited from offering any
candidate (because those parties are too unpopular and too
unrepresentative). Such limits have not been needed in the past because
the fear of vote splitting has limited each political party to offering
just one candidate in each contest.
The software uses the Vote-Info-Split-Join (VISJ) framework, which
manipulates the text so that the VoteFair ranking software does not have
access to candidate names or party names (which ensures a lack of bias
that goes beyond just being able to view the source code).
If anyone needs help using this software to calculate results for any
election, please contact me through the CPAN or GitHub or VoteFair.org
contact info.
Richard Fobes
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