Re: Result for vote regarding new members for the board of directors

[why did you CC Manoj?]

On Sun, Feb 23, 2003 at 07:49:28AM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> Documenting a buggy interface isn't fixing the problem,

I think whether it's a feature or a bug is a matter of opinion.

> and the obvious interpretation of the vote "------1-" or "G" is to
> rank Bruce above everyone else.

It's only "obvious" to people unaccustomed to preferential voting
systems.

> For comparison, the latest drafts of the Debian voting
> mechanism say:
>
> A.6 Vote Counting
> 1. Each voter's ballot ranks the options being voted on. Not all
> options need be ranked. Ranked options are considered
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> preferred to all unranked options. Voters may rank options
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> equally. Unranked options are considered to be ranked equally
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> with one another. Details of how ballots may be filled out
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> will be included in the Call For Votes.

Debian's voting system is required to have properties that take it
afield from the strict Condorcet Cloneproof/SSD method. Quorums,
default options, and supermajorities are all mandated properties under
the Debian Consitution, for instance.

I don't see the harm in letting SPI experiment with slightly simpler
methods.

--
G. Branden Robinson, Treasurer
Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
treasurer(at)spi-inc(dot)org
http://www.spi-inc.org/