Post by Lew / Redsky

Lew • Feed

Thank you for this essential corrective to the usual "rank all it's fine" STV voting guidance (which is accurate for single-member elections, of which is is not one)

jul 9, 2025, 4:15 am • 6 0

Replies

It's fine as practical advice, but STV systems certainly obey later no-harm criteria and this is evident from the algorithm, which only considers a preference once the fate of all higher candidates has been decided. www.votingmatters.org.uk/ISSUE3/P5.HTM

As we saw in Election 4, under STV the later preferences on a ballot are not even considered until the fates of all candidates of earlier preference have been decided. Thus a voter can be certain that adding extra preferences to his or her preference listing can neither help nor harm any candidate already listed. Supporters of STV usually regard this as a very important property, although it has to be said that not everyone agrees; the property has been described (by Michael Dummett, in a letter to Robert Newland) as

jul 9, 2025, 10:43 pm • 0 0 • view