Dec 15 voting amendment draft
I'm going to [perhaps arbitrarily] claim that we have a "firm enough"
idea of what we're trying to achieve in our voting system. If you
disagree, please be explicit about the point(s) on which you disagree.
This is a revision of the Dec 7 draft.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2002/debian-vote-200212/msg00023.html
As always: if there are any ambiguities or other flaws with this proposal,
please let me know.
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DRAFT:
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Under 4.2 Procedure [for developers during a general resolution or
election], change item 3 to read:
3. Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes and tallies results
are not revealed during the voting period; after the vote the
Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting period is
2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the Project Leader,
and may be ended by the Project Secretary when enough voters have
voted that even if every remaining voter voted in opposition to
the winner the outcome would remain the same. In this context, we
ignore the possibility that people might want to change their vote.
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Under 5.2 Appointment of project leader, change item 7 to read:
7. The decision will be made using A.6 of the Standard Resolution
Procedure. The quorum is the same as for a General Resolution
(s.4.2) except the default option is None Of The Above.
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Under 6.1 Powers [of the technical committee], change item 7 to read:
7. Appoint the Chairman of the Technical Committee. The Chairman
is elected by the Committee from its members. All members of the
committee are automatically nominated; the committee vote starting
one week before the post will become vacant (or immediately, if it
is already too late). The members may vote by public acclamation
for any fellow committee member, including themselves; there is
no default option. The vote finishes when all the members have
voted or when the outcome is no longer in doubt. The result is
determined using A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure.
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Under A.2 Calling for a vote, change item 2 to read
2. The proposer or a sponsor of a motion may call for a vote on a
set of related amendments.
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Replace A.3 with:
A.3. Voting procedure
1. Each independent set of related amendments is voted on in a
separate ballot. Each such ballot has as options all the sensible
combinations of amendments and options from that set, and a default
option. If the default option wins then the entire resolution
procedure is set back to the start of the discussion period.
2. The default option must not have any supermajority requirements.
Options which do not have an explicit supermajority requirement
have a 1:1 majority requirement.
3. The vote taker (if there is one) or the voters (if voting is done
by public pronouncement) may arrange for independent ballots
to be held simultaneously, even (for example) using a single
voting message.
4. Votes may be cast during the voting period, as specified elsewhere.
If the voting period can end if the outcome is no longer in
doubt, the possibility that voters may change their votes is
not considered.
5. The votes are counted according to the the rules in A.6 If a
quorum is required then the default option is Further Discussion.
6. In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters
of procedure (for example, whether particular amendments should
be considered independent or not).
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Replace A.5 with:
A.5. Expiry
If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on or
otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks the secretary may issue a statement
that the issue is being withdrawn. If none of the sponsors of any
of the proposals object within a week, the issue is withdrawn.
The secretary may also include suggestions on how to proceed,
if appropriate.
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Replace A.6 with:
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, and below any explicitly ranked options. The other
details of how ballots may be filled out will be included in
the Call For Votes.
2. If the ballot has a quorum requirement (Q) any options other
than the default option which do not receive at least Q votes
ranking that option above the default option are dropped from
consideration.
3. Any option which does not defeat the default option by its
required majority ratio is dropped from consideration.
a. An option A defeats an option B if N(A,B)*V(A,B) is larger
than N(B,A)*V(B,A) and if the (A,B) defeat has not been
dropped.
b. Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters
who prefer option A over option B.
c. If a majority of n:1 is required for A, and B is the default
option, N(B,A) is n. In all other cases, N(B,A) is 1.
4. We construct the Schwartz set based on undropped options and
defeats:
a. An option A is in the Schwartz set if for all options B,
either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively
defeat A.
b. An option A transitively defeats an option C if A defeats
C or if there is some other option B where A defeats B
AND B transitively defeats C.
5. If there are defeats between options in the Schwartz set, we
drop the weakest such defeats, and return to step 4.
a. A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X)
is less than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y)
if V(A,X) is equal to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than
V(Y,B).
b. A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat
weaker than it. There may be more than one such defeat.
6. If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner
is chosen from the options in the Schwartz set. If there is
only one such option, it is the winner. If there are multiple
options, the elector with a casting vote chooses which of those
options wins. If there are no options in the Schwartz set,
the default option wins.
"RATIONALE": Options which the voters rank above the default option
are options they find acceptable. Options ranked below the default
options are options they find unacceptable.
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Thanks,
--
Raul
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