<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-637144bf-7fff-62cb-0ae4-45e27e5d62e0"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif" style="">Dear Community,</font></span></p><p style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-637144bf-7fff-62cb-0ae4-45e27e5d62e0"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-637144bf-7fff-62cb-0ae4-45e27e5d62e0"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The aim of the consultation is to address some shortcomings in our existing system. This note is to provide some background about the rationale for the proposal for those who may not be aware of STV. Specific answers related to the questions on this mailing list will come soon.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Currently, with a large slate of candidates there is a meaningful possibility that one or more persons could win with less than 50% of the vote. Surpassing the 50% threshold is often considered a clear mandate with FPTP.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">STV is designed for multi-winner elections where candidates are ranked in order of preference. This allows you to get a better picture of the overall sentiment of the electorate while ameliorating the minority rule shortcoming. </font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">There are disadvantages, some of which are shared with our existing system. For example, it is possible to win without passing the voting threshold, but it’s limited to a single candidate. This can occur amongst a crowded field of alternative choices after the primary choices are selected. A disadvantage that STV doesn’t share with FPTP is that it is more complicated due to the rankings and a different definition of the threshold.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The consultation document provides other comparison criteria.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">No voting system will meet all desired goals, however we wanted to investigate the appetite for the additional benefits and the degree to which they outweigh the disadvantages in the eyes of the voting membership. </font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">So, what is STV?</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The consultation document tries to summarize the evaluation of many sources of data. Wikipedia is a rich repository, however before starting your research there, I’d recommend looking at these very short youtube video tutorials:</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI</font></span></a></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" role="presentation"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac9070OIMUg" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac9070OIMUg</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></font></p></li></ol><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">You will find that most online sources of voting system analysis will focus on political party based systems, which differ from our context, but will be insightful. </font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" role="presentation"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">This link provides a compact evaluation matrix table of major voting systems: </span><a href="https://www.dprvoting.org/System_Comparison.htm" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">https://www.dprvoting.org/System_Comparison.htm</span></a></font></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" role="presentation"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">This link provides a detailed, though accessible, single page comparison: </span><a href="https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/es/esd/esd02/esd02d/esd02d01" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/es/esd/esd02/esd02d/esd02d01</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></font></p></li></ol><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">We are not unique in wanting to assess more equitable, party-agnostic, multi-winner voting systems. RIPE uses an STV system and was consulted as part of our research. NANOG is making preliminary evaluations.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">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.</font></span></p><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, sans-serif">ARIN members provide services to 29 nations and territories with over 370 million inhabitants generating over 21 trillion USD in annual GDP. The gravity of this governance consultation must be considered in this context.</font></span></p><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">Peter</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>