Yes or no on AV

[Alonso]

I would vote no on AV. No reason posted so we can start this slowly instead of us all getting confused and saying we are wrong. We all have our own opinion.

[Qwerty]

Er, what's AV?

[Alonso]

AV is basicly what hey used in the fifa world cup country hosting decision.

[Qwerty]

Er... Nope, still no clue. Is it some kind of voting system?

[Alonso]

Yes.

[endy123]

it does have some merits.

you don't get situations where the place/candidate/etc. is liked by less than half the voters.

[xShadowLordx]

Jun 27, 2011 20:24:10 GMT james said:

It's also a little confusing.

VOTERs have to rank candidates by number in our proposed form of the AV (Alternative Vote) system.
You put “1” next to your first preferene, then 2, 3 and so on for your next choices. If no candidate gets at least 50 per cent of first-preference votes, the last-placed is eliminated and their votes reassigned according to the second preferences on their ballot papers.
The process is repeated until one candidate scores more than half the vote and is declared the winner.

The traditional voting system is much simpler, in my opinion.

Agreed. Honestly, why the heck did they invent AV in the first place?

[Vertigo]

Er, it's mostly called run off voting, and it works the same as normal voting. In fact, it may even be more beneficial.

Let's say you have Red, Blue, and Green running for some made up position.

8 people voted Red

7 People Voted Blue

2 People Voted Green

Normally, Red would win, but Blue still has a chance thanks to run off voting. Let's look at the two votes for green. Let's say they both had Green as their first choice, meaning their vote went to him as shown, but then had blue as their 2nd choice, and Red as their 3rd choice.

Since they clearly wanted Green to win, but still preferred Blue over Red, it makes more sense for their votes not to disappear, and to go to their second choice.

Meaning:

8-Red
7-Blue
2-Green

Green is eliminated, and the 2 votes go to blue, their second choice after green.

8-Red
9-Blue

Meaning blue wins, and more people are happy. There's a reason many countries vote for governmental positions this way. It may seem to be more confusing, but it presents more positives than just voting the normal way.

Edit: In retrospect, this isn't confusing at all. Really, instead of putting down only your favorite, you also put down your second and third favorite. They're just asking you "If this person doesn't win, please mark down who you would want to win instead."

[Qwerty]

That actually sounds quite good. Yes, by all means.

[Mad Cow 483]

What would this AV be used for...
And yes, it sounds good to me, more fair than a traditional voting system.

[Elmach]

I'm going to throw this out there.

It is impossible to have a fair voting system-- Arrow's impossibility theorem.
(I'm linking to Wikipedia because that is the simplest link I could find, just search on google to find more information)

Example...

Seven candidates, A,B,C,D,E,F,G.

22 voters say: A>B>C>D>E>F>G
18 voters say: B>C>D>E>F>G>A
30 voters say C>D>E>F>G>A>B

Depending on how votes are counted, you can get any candidate to win.

Including candidate G.

Traditional voting gives candidate C. As does AV... one second while I construct a completely confusing one...

EDIT: AV is one of the few ones which are hard to have a counterintuitive vote.