[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Implementing Single Transferrable Voting for ARIN Elections

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 6:33 PM William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 9:51 AM Peter Harrison <peter at colovore.com> wrote:
> > It is possible to create many scenarios that test the limits of STV and FPTP systems. I encourage you to consider their likelihood in our situation and discount them accordingly. Please remember the overall goal of creating greater equity using a globally deployed system designed by psephology thought leaders.
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> As an engineer, I earn a living making systems resistant to Murphy's
> Law. When I see a voting system like STV which allows for the election
> of the candidate most opposed by a clear majority of voters, alarm
> bells ring. It's an obviously incorrect outcome that shouldn't be
> possible.

RVC, in at least some variants, does not require
one to assign a rank to all candidates (only allows
it), so that candidates that are not desirable and
have few trailing votes may not be able to cross any
threshold.  As with much else, the devil is in the
details of the process, and the voters' understanding
of that process.  I think it is highly likely that most
ARIN voting members will be able to understand
the implications of their votes (although the
experience of NYC suggests that it can confuse
some of the people at least some of the time).