Voting system R&D (Re: 2017 update to the SPI voting algorithm for Board elections)

[Filipus Klutiero]

Hi Joshua, Ian,

On 2017-02-28 12:57, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On 02/28/2017 09:38 AM, Henrik Ingo wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 7:29 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd at commandprompt.com> wrote:
>>> On 02/28/2017 07:56 AM, Ian Jackson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Henrik Ingo writes ("Re: 2017 update to the SPI voting algorithm for Board
>>>> elections [and 1 more messages]"):
>>>
>>>
>>>> Finally, SPI should not be in the business of voting system
>>>> innovation.  Nor should SPI be in the business of doing our own
>>>> detailed analysis of voting systems, as you are doing.  We should
>>>> leave voting system development, analysis, and recommendation, to
>>>> civil society organisations specialising in voting reform, such as
>>>> Fair Votes Canada and the UK Electoral Reform Society.
>>>>
>>>
>>> 1 Billion times this.
>>>
>>
>> I don't know whether you intended it that way, but in Ian's original
>> message, this was not a reply to anything I wrote.
>
> Henrik,
>
> My response was the affirm Ian's point that is all. Specifically:
>
> [...]
>
> * We should leave voting system development, analysis, and recommendation, to civil society organisations specialising in voting reform, such as Fair Votes Canada and the UK Electoral Reform Society.

I must object. Nothing other than resources prevents us from researching and developing voting systems. It is correct that this is not our core business, but as a decision-making organisation, improving our decision-making deserves investment. It would be ideal if we could simply rely on organizations specialized in voting systems R&D, but if the UK Electoral Reform Society is like Fair Vote Canada, these two are unfortunately not going to help much.

The main issue of FVC is not to maximize representativeness, but simply to get rid of FPTP given the challenges created by a population much less knowledgeable about decision-making and much more traditionalist than SPI's, by the constitution, and by the necessity to have the reform performed by a government elected by FPTP. I have received tens of mails from FVC and none discussed monotonicity or any technical point.

This was not a comment on the substance of Barak's claim.

[...]

-- 
Filipus Klutiero
http://www.philippecloutier.com