A Movable-Vote
Workshop

By organizing voters, Instant Runoff Voting ends:
Spoilers and lesser-of-two-evils voting;
Costly runoffs and winners without majority mandates.

IRV elects leaders in London, Sidney, San Francisco and more.
It elects students leaders at Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford...

Questions on Instant Runoff Voting

Single Transferable Vote Elects Several Reps

• The finish line marks the height of a quarter of the cards plus one.
• Do not give a card to a candidate who has finished.
• Eliminate the weakest candidates one at a time.
• Move your cards until three candidates win!

Single Transferable Vote is used in Australian and Irish elections,
at Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and Cambridge,
in some unions, and in the Church of England.

It gives each group their fair share of voices on a council.
It often elects more women and minority candidates.
It increases choices for voters and turnout of voters.
It makes more effective votes that elect reps.

Questions on Single Transferable Vote

Movable Money Votes Pick Public Goods

• Let's say we each put in $1 to buy some items.
  You get two 25¢ voting cards and a 50¢ double card.
• We decide an item needs modest support from 10 of us
  to prove it is a public good worth public money.
  So the finish line marks the height of 10 single cards.
• You may put only one of your cards in a column.
  So you can't dump all your cards on a private item.
   
  Tip: Give your double card to your favorite item.
  This way 5 eager voters can fund a low-cost item.
  So the voters' number and zeal both count.

• A costly item must fill several columns.  A column here
  holds $2.50, so a $5.00 item must fill two columns.
• When a item wins, the banker hides its cards, and then
  rejects any item that costs more than all the cards left.
  Then one at a time, we reject the least popular item,
  with the lowest level of cards in its columns.
• Move your cards from a loser to your next choice.
  Tip: You may try to save a threatened favorite by briefly
  withholding your cards from lower choices.

  Voting stops when all the items still on the table are paid up.
  Only a few items can win, but all voters can win something!

... and Set Budgets

Each funding level is like another project.
It needs enough cards to fill it up.

The column for “$3 OJ” starts at the bottom.
Its finish line is at the tally board's $3 level.
The column for “$5 OJ” is blocked off up to $3.
Its finish line is at $5; so it needs only $2 in cards.
A supporter must put a card in the lower level first.

One at a time, the weak ones lose and the money moves
to help your highest ranks still in the running.

(Each funding level of an agency is another project.
But an agency starts with [80]% of its recent budgets.
So a member cannot give it zero and “steal a free ride.”)

Questions on Movable Money Votes

It's new; try it!  It can help your group directly and set an
example for others.  You can help the progress of democracy!

Pairwise Rule Centers a Policy

• Policy C's flag is at our center, by the median voter.
  Three flags surround C, about 4' from it. (1.2m)
• Pairwise asks: “Are you closer to flag A than flag B?
  If so, please raise your hand.”  Then test A against C, etc.
  We put each total in the Pairwise table below.
• The winner must top every rival, one-against-one.

Pairwise is a Wide-Appeal Contest.

• A pole stands at our center, by the median voters.
  It holds a short Red ribbon and a long Blue one.
• If the Red ribbon gets to you, the Red policy
  gets your vote with its narrow appeal.
• But if the Red cannot touch you, the wider appeal
  of the Blue policy gets your vote.  Which one wins?

 If the poles are places for a heater in an icy cold room. 
A) Do we put it at our center or in the biggest group ? 
B) Do we turn on its fan to spread the heat wide ? 

Questions on Pairwise Voting

Conclusions

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