DEMOCRACY EVOLVES!

Site Outline

Purpose: This site shows the best voting methods for elections and meetings.
               The resulting councils are inclusive, well centered, and decisive.
               Free software makes the tallies easy!

The site's design is linear. The first page introduces 3 common problems in voting rules and the basic patterns of the Condorcet, STV, and Loring rules. Later pages give you details on how to use the rules to elect reps, enact policies, or fund projects. Each of those major pages looks at the philosophy of democracy and a practical problem, then presents a solution. Each major page links to a page of detailed examples.

Key:
= common plurality rule's erratic flip flops
= Condorcet's rule for 1 central winner
= Single Transferable Vote for fairly distributed winners
= Loring Ensemble Rules for a balanced and centered council

Introduction to Elections:   The basics of 3 election rules.
Election Details:   The effects of the best single- and multi-winner rules.
Policy Decisions:   Vote once to enact 1 policy out of many options and motions.
Project Selection:   Vote once to select and budget several winning projects.
Budget Setting:   Vote to simultaneously adjust each and every ongoing budget.
PoliticalSim TM   Tally real or simulated voters.
Math lite version   puts less emphasis on math. But its prose is sometimes
    clumsy as it tries to step around concepts that need a little arithmetic. It is
    divided into short pages with more graphics than this old version.
Table of contents for the math lite version.

elect.htm, brief descriptions:

Tragedies By Design, 3 common failures of voting
Divide and Repress
Deny and Ignore
Waffle and Waste
Recent Evolutionary Steps in pictures
1800s
1900s
2000s
Solutions to common failures of voting
Condorcet's Rule : definition, example, qualities
Single Transferable Vote for 1 winner
Single Transferable Vote, multi-winner
Proportional Representation: women, turnout, campaign funding

Loring Ensemble Rules, Condorcet chair then STV reps
Loring One-winner Rule, speeds policy voting
Loring Allocation Rule, a multi-winner philosophy
Download elect.htm formatted for printing.z_prints.htm

d_stv1d.htm, STV Pictured in Games:

Game 1, Protecting majority rights, Tally analogy
Game 2, Protecting minority rights
STV Charts from PoliticalSim

elections, more details:

Philosophies Hidden In Voting Rules
Philosophies
The Marquis de Condorcet
How to Manipulate Plurality Rules
Gerrymander, free rides
Preference Ballots
Effects and designs
Single Transferable Vote
Effects
Definitions
Loring Ensemble Rules, Condorcet Chair Then STV Reps
Merits of balanced policies
Definitions and effects
Resources
Tools, web sites, bibliography

e_shares.htm, Rules, Votes and Seats

Council sizes and ensemble rules
Thresholds for winning

enact policies, Committee Decision Making

Voting in Meetings
Why Vote?
How to manipulate agenda voting.
Loring One-winner Rule: Condorcet + STV
Condorcet's rule, voting cycles, and manipulation
Single Transferable Vote and manipulation
LOR and manipulation
LOR and Parliamentary Motions
Rules of Order
How to conduct a meeting vote.
Initiatives and constitutional amendments
Stability is not rigidity.

l_lor1.htm draft, Strategic Voting Examples

Strategic voting and LOR, Examples, Parliamentary Checks

p_ballot.htm, Funding Projects

Ballot logic and options

p_tally.htm, MMV Steps

Philosophy of Proportional Funding
Fair shares to balance and limit group power
Share Allocation Rule
Movable Money Votes
Equity process in MMV, weights
Utility process in MMV, variable votes
Utility and equity, Influence Points
Calculation steps
Review
Loring Allocation Rule: Condorcet + MMV
LAR
Condorcet Allocation System
LAR.zip software. NEW

p_options.htm, MMV Options

Conditional votes, suspensions, and ties
Collecting contributions
Vote values in LAR
Evaluating of sets of winners

fundRank.htm, Utility Value

Charts of 3 ballots under 3 utility functions
Notes on utility functions
Alternate winners

q_intro.htm, Setting Ongoing Budgets

Fair-share Influence Points
Linear charges and square root effects.
Median Voter Process
Half the voters want to give more; half less.
How to conduct an MVP vote.

z_future.htm, Future Rules:

Electing Candidates
LERc: STV then Condorcet
CPO-STV: Comparison of Pairs of Outcomes by STV
Minimum Rank Group
Selective annealing
Unequal reps
Enacting Policies
Voters weight their priority issues
LORr or LORo may reduce effects of elimination order
Funding Projects
Minority Funding Process
How to conduct an MFP vote
Joint Allocation Rule
Maximum Utility Rules
Agent Allocation Rules
Funding Systems Compared
Setting Budgets
Minority power in setting departmental budgets

PoliticalSim
Voting Simulations for Games, Demonstrations, or Research
Description, picture

Other Download Pages:
z_prints.htm This page downloads an 8 page article on new voting rules. Versions are formatted for printing with Adobe Acrobat 3.0 or Microsoft Word 6, or rich text format. Updated 98-08-06. (65K)
z_tools.htm PolyVote TM tallies many voting rules. Its controls are simpler than PoliticalSim's because PolyVote cannot run games, demonstrations, or research. New 98-04-20. (400K)
p_tools.htm The Movable Money Votes is available as an Excel 5 program. It includes a highly-interactive ballot. Updated 2003-6-15. (78K) Fund.pdf explains MMV in an Acrobat document.

Quotes and Authors Game
-- humorous political quotations

Math lite version   puts less emphasis on math. But its prose is sometimes
    clumsy as it tries to step around concepts that need a little arithmetic. It is
    divided into short pages with more graphics than this old version.
Table of contents for the math lite version.

Translations: Other Languages.
Return to the Democracy Evolves introduction

Questions? Ask us.
Criticisms and suggestions welcomed.
Reprints permitted.