Re: electing multiple people

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Josip Rodin writes ("electing multiple people"):
> So, I proposed the following addition to the section A.6. Vote Counting
> (part of appendix A Standard Resolution Procedure):

As I've said in the meeting at Debconf and on debian-project, I think
this is the wrong way to do because this voting system implicitly asks
the wrong question.

Voting systems like STV and its derivatives (including Condorcet)
assume that:
  * The number of people to be appointed is fixed in advance
  * The candidates ought to compete against each other.
These assumptions are not true for our social committee.

We discussed at some length in the meeting at Debconf the problem with
electing a social committee, namely that a good social committee will
do much of its work informally, quietly and behind the scenes.  So the
most effective members will have nothing to show.

Actively harmful SC members will be easy to spot of course because
they'll cause flamewars etc.  Inactive or lazy SC members are not a
problem and we can just keep them.


So, as I have said before, we should use straight per-candidate
approval voting.

That is: the DPL should propose candidates, which the electorate will
separately vote on.  That is, if the DPL proposes
      Alice
      Bob
      Carol
      Dave
      Elspeth
then each voter gets to choose
      Alice ? - choose Yes/No/Abstain
      Bob ? - choose Yes/No/Abstain
      etc.
and if more people vote `yes' for Alice than vote `no' for Alice then
Alice is appointed - regardless of any votes for or against Bob,
Carol, etc.

This means that if we have lots of candidates we like we have a big
committee.  I think this is fine if the committee has a reasonably
streamlined process for making its own decisions.  Even the cumbersome
process mandated for the TC seems to cope fairly well with TC members
who fail to participate, and of course we should give the SC the
ability to set its own rules.

There would have to be a minimum committee size, in case the voters
rejected too many of the candidates.  If the committee falls below the
minimum size it loses its powers until more candidates are proposed,
approved and appointed.


Ian.