18
votes
Accepted
Is Duverger's Law a theorem or an empirical regularity?
Assuming (everyone in) the electorate knows the probability distribution of votes for the candidates and votes strategically, and assuming this distribution has no ties (whatsoever), Duverger's law ...
- 145k
12
votes
What would it take to change the voting in the UK away from "first past the post"?
Under the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty, a simple Act of Parliament is “all” that’s required - in practice this has proved quite tricky in the past.
Proposals for both STV (single ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
10
votes
How would one prevent political gerrymandering?
Pegden, Procaccia, and Yu have proposed a really cool new method for districting from game theory. In a 2 party system, a pretty fair solution can be reached using a method deriving from the simple ...
- 11k
10
votes
Accepted
Plurality voting: Advantages?
The primary advantage of such systems is their conceptual simplicity. I don't have to spend an hour explaining the mathematics of "first past the post" systems to you, I can do it in a ...
- 16.4k
9
votes
Plurality voting: Advantages?
Simplicity and history:
Plurality voting is easy to explain and implement.
And so it was implemented first.
And once it was implemented, everyone got used to it.
And once everyone was used to it, ...
- 3,876
8
votes
Accepted
How would one prevent political gerrymandering?
Any other way?
No.
The normal suggestions are
An "independent" commission.
A "fair" algorithm.
But who chooses the fair algorithm? The politicians in power. How long does it take before ...
- 89.3k
6
votes
Plurality voting: Advantages?
There are no substantial advantages of first-past-the-post voting (which generally requires only a plurality to win in contests with more than 2 candidates). FPTP voting is simple, yes. But so is ...
- 298
6
votes
Plurality voting: Advantages?
Plurality (or "First past the post" or "FPTP") is Precinct Summable and Hare RCV (a.k.a. "IRV") is not precinct summable. I guess you could call that a reason to use ...
- 1,332
5
votes
How would one prevent political gerrymandering?
The dissent in the court case referenced by the question addresses this at some length. It takes care to distinguish two questions:
Is a districting map fair to members of all parties?
Does the map ...
- 159
5
votes
Is first-past-the-post (plurality voting) neither an ordinal nor a cardinal method?
Short Answer:
First Past the Post is an ordinal method.
Long Answer:
There are 2 components to a voting method.
How voter preferences are expressed on a ballot.
How ballots are aggregated to produce ...
- 592
5
votes
What are the disadvantages of first-past-the-post electoral systems?
First-past-the-post systems are polarizing. Because of the advantages of tactical voting, most people concentrate on a popular candidate who is good enough. So parties build themselves around such ...
- 89.3k
4
votes
What can UK citizens do to replace first past the post with a proportional representation voting system?
There is no need to found a new party. There are plenty of parties that already support a form of PR. You state that "the party that leads government will inevitably be either the Conservative Party ...
- 115k
3
votes
Why not just put FPTP in one house and PR in the other?
Not only is it possible for nation states to use multiple voting systems in different legislative systems, but some are already doing it. As an example from the "A"s, Australia uses the Single ...
- 21.1k
3
votes
How would one prevent political gerrymandering?
Use a proportional voting system. As every vote counts the same, the shape of voting districts has no effect on the election results. This removes the incentive for Gerrymandering.
- 131
2
votes
Is first-past-the-post (plurality voting) neither an ordinal nor a cardinal method?
It sorta depends on the theoretical framework adopted. Brams and Fishburn (2002) put plurality in the "nonranked methods", i.e in same bin as (their favorite) approval voting:
The multicandidate ...
- 145k
2
votes
What can UK citizens do to replace the first-past-the-post voting system with a proportional representation voting system?
Register a political party that has the following two pledges:
(a) Hold a referendum on voting reform, giving the electorate a choice of the following four alternative voting systems: Additional ...
- 1,113
2
votes
Accepted
Is the single plurality system the same as the winner take all system?
Yes, it is. More often, one would say the single member district plurality system. Another common term for it is the "first past the post" system (mostly in British English). This sentence from the ...
- 73.4k
2
votes
How many seats did the anti-hard Brexit parties lose in the 2019 general elections due to the spoiler effect?
To perform the analysis below, I've used the General Election 2019 data available from the House of Commons Library.
Spoiler Effect
I've defined a flippable seat as a seat which the Conservative ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
2
votes
Would ranked choice voting force single issue voters to vote for more than one candidate or not be counted?
Since New Jersey current uses a plurality voting/first past the post voting system for the office of US Senator, then the question of how a ranked choice voting/instant runoff tabulated election would ...
- 21.1k
1
vote
Would ranked choice voting force single issue voters to vote for more than one candidate or not be counted?
To answer "Would ranked choice voting force single issue voters to vote for more than one candidate or not be counted?"
If enough people have you as number 1 you win. In the case where you ...
- 119
1
vote
Plurality voting: Advantages?
There are two main advantages. Firstly, (as already mentioned) FPTP is simple to count. While there are practical advantages, the theoretical advantage is that there is only one reasonable way to ...
- 115k
1
vote
Plurality voting: Advantages?
Another advantage, besides being conceptually simple and avoiding complex coalition-based governments, is that's it's a "one vote system".
To take a counterexample, French presidential ...
1
vote
Is first-past-the-post (plurality voting) neither an ordinal nor a cardinal method?
Neither, leaning towards cardinal.
While I agree with eclipz905 above that "[t]he question of cardinal vs ordinal is only concerned with ... [h]ow voter preferences are expressed on a ballot"...
- 11
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