Request for comments [voting amendment]

[Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>]

This is not a full draft.  In this post, I'm only including
text for replacing A.6 of the constitution.  I wanted to
also rewrite the changes to A.3, but I've got to run some
errands tonight and I'm not going to have time to write up
a full draft.

Please let me know of any flaws in the following partial draft:

  A.6 Vote Counting

    1. Each ballot orders the options being voted on in the order
       specified by the voter.  Any options unranked by the voter are
       treated as being equal to any other unranked options and below
       all options ranked by the voter.

    2. Options which do not defeat the default option are eliminated.

       Definition: Option A defeats option B if more voters prefer option
       A over option B than prefer option B over option A.

    3. If an option has a quorum requirement, that option must defeat
       the default option by the number of votes specified in the quorum
       requirement or the option is eliminated.

    4. If an option has a supermajority requirement, that option must
       defeat the default option by the ratio of votes specified in the
       quorum requirement or the option is eliminated.

    5. If one remaining option defeats any other remaining options,
       that option wins.

    6. If more than one option remains after the above steps, we use
       Cloneproof Schultz Sequential Dropping to eliminate any cyclic
       ambiguities and then pick the winner.  These represent a procedure
       and must be carried out in the specified order:

       i. All options not in the Schultz set are eliminated.

          Definition: An option C is in the Schultz set if there is no
          other option D such that C is in the beat path of D AND D is
          not in the beat path of C.

          Definition: An option F is in the beat path of option G if
          option G defeats option F or if there is some other option
          H where option H is in the beat path of G AND option F is in
          the beat path of H.

       ii. Unless this would eliminate all options in the Schultz set,
	   the options which have the weakest defeat are eliminated.

	   Definition: The strength of a defeat is represented by two
	   numbers: the number of votes for the defeated option and the
	   number of votes for the defeating option.

	   The more votes in favor of a defeated option, the weaker
	   the defeat.	Where two pairs of options have the same number
	   of votes in favor of the defeated option, the fewer votes in
	   favor of the defeating option, the weaker the defeat.

       iii. If eliminating the weakest defeat would eliminate all options
	    in the Schultz set, a tie exists and the person with the
	    casting vote picks from among these options.

       iv. Otherwise, a new schultz set is found, with those weakest
           defeats eliminated,

       v. If this new schultz set contains only one option, that option
          wins.

       vi. Otherwise, these steps (i-vi) are repeated with this new
           schultz set.

Thanks,

-- 
Raul