For more information, see http://bolson.org/voting/
or contact Brian Olson by email at brian.olson@gmail.com
comments in italic
Additions to California Elections Code
"Election Method" shall mean a specific mathematical and logical method of choosing a winner or winners based on votes.
"Approval Ballot" allows a voter to record a vote of yes or no for each choice. An Approval Ballot may be presented where marked is considered "yes" and unmarked is considered "no".
"Ranked Ballot" allows a voter to express the relative rankings of each choice. A choice ranked 'First' is the most preferred choice for the voter; 'Second' is the next most preferred choice, and so on. A vote may not assign the same ranking to two or more choices. Any number of choices may be left unranked.
"Rated Ballot" allows a voter to express a rating, in the form of some number, for each choice. Any number of choices may be left unrated.
"Yes/No Ballot" allows a voter to affirm or reject some proposition, being a ballot initiative, judge retention, etc. "Yes" and "No", or similar positive and negative expressions, shall be recorded by the ballot distinct from not-voting on the election or issue.
"Vote" shall mean the record of a Voter's expression about the choices on a ballot.
This should go somewhere in Division 10, 12, 13 or 14
"Pick-One Vote" is the traditional election method where voters cast a single vote. As of two years after the passage of this law, Pick-One Vote shall no longer be an acceptable method of election. Approval Voting is recommended as the simplest substitute. Although Pick-One Vote is not invalidated for two years, the other Election Methods here enacted are immediately available for use.
The following are acceptable Election Methods for all public elections. It is intended that the Election Official in charge choose the best system based on the technology available and the understood merits of the various systems.
1. "Approval Voting" is applied to votes from an Approval Ballot. For each choice the "yes" votes are tallied. The choice, or choices when there is more than one position available, with the most yes votes are the winners.
2. "Yes/No Vote" is applied to votes from a "Yes/No Ballot. It is the traditional election method used for judge retention, ballot initiatives, [etc?]. Unless a super-majority is specified by some other act of constitution or law, if more "Yes" votes are counted than "No" votes then the issue is accepted.
3. "Instant Runoff Normalized Ratings" is applied to votes from Rated Ballots. The ratings for each vote shall be proportionally adjusted so as to preserve the relative intents of the voter and so as to give all voters equal voting power (Not withstanding any other law which gives a voter a fractional vote). The adjusted ratings shall be summed and the choice with the lowest summary rating shall be disqualified. The votes shall be re-voted and re-adjusted as if they had not voted for disqualified choices. The disqualify-revote cycle shall repeat until there is a tie across all remaining choices or only as many choices as there are available seats remaining.
4. "Instant Runoff Voting" (IRV) is applied to votes from Ranked Ballots. IRV is for single seat elections. As long as there are two or more qualified choices, one vote shall be counted for the highest ranked qualified choice from each vote. If a vote has the unranked value recorded for the remaining qualified choices, no choices shall receive a count from that vote. The choice with the lowest count shall be disqualified and the count repeated. The winner shall be the choice with the greater count after counting when there are two qualified choices.
5. "Virtual Round Robin Tournament" (aka "Condorcet's Method") is applied to votes from Ranked Ballots. If one choice is ranked more preferably than another choice by more votes than the reverse is true then the first choice is considered to have 'defeated' the second. If one choice is not defeated by any other choice then that choice is the winner.
5.1 Cycle Resolution Method for Virtual Round Robin Tournament
If no choice is undefeated then of the of the smallest set of choices not defeated by any choice outside that set,
the 'defeat' with the smallest number of votes in favor of the winning side of the defeat is ignored.
Additional defeats are thus ignored until one choice can be considered undefeated.
6. "Single Transferrable Vote" (STV) is a method for electing multiple candidates from Ranked Ballots. Until as many choices as there are available seats have been elected, the highest ranked qualified choice from each vote shall be counted for that vote's weight. Each vote initially has a weight of 1.0 (Not withstanding any other law which gives a voter a fractional vote). The necessary vote for a choice to be elected is ( the total active weight of votes / ( the number of seats + 1 ) ) + 1 . A choice is elected when it is counted for a vote greater than that necessary vote. If a choice is elected then the votes counted towards that choice shall have their weights reduced by multiplying them by ( 1.0 - ( necessary vote / winning choice's total vote ) ). On future rounds an elected choice is considered as disqualified when counting a vote's highest qualified choice. If in some round no choice receives enough vote to be elected then the choice with the lowest counted vote shall be disqualified.
1. For "Instant Runoff Normalized Ratings" (NNNN.3) or "Instant Runoff Voting" (NNNN.4) or "Single Transferrable Vote" (NNNN.6), all recorded votes shall be transmitted to the County Election Official. For elections which cannot be decided at the county level the County Election Official shall in turn transmit a compilation of all recorded votes to the Secretary of State or delegated election official for the State.
2. For all other Election Methods precincts shall transmit summaries of votes to their County Election Official. For elections which cannot be decided at the county level the County Election Official shall in turn transmit a compiled county wide summary to the Secretary of State or delegated election official for the State.
Does this need to be spelled out or can it be left implicitly to an implementation detail?
2.1 The summary form of an "Approval Vote" (NNNN.1) is the number of votes Yes for each choice.
2.2 The summary form of a "Yes/No Vote" (NNNN.2) is the number of votes Yes and the number of votes No.
2.3 The summary form of "Virtual Round Robin Tournament" (NNNN.5) is a table with as many rows and columns as there are choices. Each entry in the table represents the number of voices that prefer one choice over another.