Get your hands on 4 great voting rules.

See fair-share tallies organize voters.

Vote fast on budget, rules and projects.

Movable VotesMovable Votes

Instant Runoff Voting elects a strong executive.

Choice Voting elects a whole council.

Movable Money Votes select projects.

Pairwise Voting centers each policy.

(Budget Refill Voting funds many departments.)

Introducing FiveIntroducing FiveGreat Voting Rules Great Voting Rules

A Winning Share,

A Movable Vote,

A Wasted Vote.

Key IdeasKey Ideas

A card for each voter,

A column for each option,

A finish line for the favorites.

A Tally Board HasA Tally Board Has

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) elects one winner.

Finish line at half our cards plus one.

Eliminate the weakest if nobody wins.

Move your card if your favorite loses.

Repeat until one candidate wins!

Instant Runoff VotingInstant Runoff Voting

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Anna Dropped 1st

Bianca Dropped 2d

Cecilia IRV winner

DanaRunner up

Finish Line Finish Line Finish Line Finish Line

Anna, the weakest candidate, is dropped.

So voter JJ moves his card.

Drop weakest.

Move cards

B B

J J G G

M M D D

B B L L Z Z

J J G G V V C C

A Tally BoardA Tally Board

BB moveshis card.

IRV elects the president of Ireland, and

mayors of Dublin, London, Sidney and

most Australian cities. San Francisco

and Minneapolis recently adopted IRV.

IRV elects student leaders at 65 U.S.

colleges including: Duke, Harvard, MIT,

Rice, Stanford, Tufts and the universities

of CA, IA, MN, NC, OK, VA, WA, WI...

IRV Is Used HereIRV Is Used Here

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A majority winner.

Less negative campaigning.

No hurting your first choice.

No lesser-of-two-evils.

No spoilers.

IRV BenefitsIRV Benefits

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1. How could your group use IRV?

2. Can your second-choice vote hurt your first choice?

3. Is a vote that moves bigger than other votes? Does its voter have more cards or power than other voters?

4. Can two candidates reach the 50% +1 vote finish line?

IRV QuestionsIRV Questions

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Choice Voting (CV) electing 3 reps:

Finish line height is one quarter + 1.

Eliminate weak candidates 1 at a time.

Move your card until 3 candidates win!

Choice VotingChoice Voting

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CV elects national legislatures or city councils in Australian, Ireland, Malta New Zealand, and Scotland.

CV elects many union and church councils in Australia and England.

CV elects student councils at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Harvard, Princeton, Vassar, and Whitman. Oxford, Cambridge and many other British and Australian Universities also use CV.

CV Is Used Here:CV Is Used Here:

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Choices for voters and turnout of voters,

Election of minorities and women,

Funding for health and education,

Conformity of policies to public opinions.

The number of voters who elect reps.

Choice Voting IncreasesChoice Voting Increases

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1. Only three candidates can reach a 25% plus one vote threshold T, F

2. What total must three CV reps win?

3. What is the threshold for winning one of five seats?

4. Can your vote for a second choice hurt your first choice?

5. How could your organization use the Choice Voting?

CV QuestionsCV Questions

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Only public goods may get public money. So an item needs support from 8 voters.A finish line marks this level of cards.

Each column here holds just $2.So a $4 item must fill 2 columns.

You get two 25¢ cards and a tall 50¢ card.

Movable Money VotesMovable Money Votes

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Place only one card in a column. Give your tall card to your favorite item.

Drop the item with the lowest % filled. Drop any that cost more than all cards.

Move your card from a loser’s column. Don’t put a vote over a full column.

Stop when all items are funded. Each voter helps fund winners !

MMV Picking ProjectsMMV Picking Projects

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Each funding level is like another project. The “$4 OJ” level has two columns. The “$6 OJ” has just one more column. You must help fill the lower level first.

One at a time, the weak levels lose.

An agency starts at 80% of its old budget.So a voter cannot, “Take a free ride.”

MMV Setting BudgetsMMV Setting Budgets

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1. May a voter fund a private item?

2. Should people who pay more taxes get more power to spend public money? to set public laws?

3. Should voters see grants by a rep?

4. Can your second choice hurt your first?

5. How could your groups use MMV?

MMV QuestionsMMV Questions

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The winner must top every rival, one-against-one. Two examples:

Flag C is at the center of the group. Three flags surround C, 5’ from it.

Ask, "Are you closer to flag A than B? If so, please raise your hand." Then test A against C, etc. We put each total in a Pairwise table.

Pairwise VotingPairwise Voting

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Votes against

Votes A B C D

for A — 2 2 3for B 5 — 2 3for C 5 5 — 4for D 4 4 3 —

Pairwise TablePairwise Table

A pole stands at our center. It holds a short Red ribbon and a long Blue one.

If the Red ribbon gets to you, the Red policy gets your vote.

But if the Red cannot touch you, the wide appeal of the Blue policy gets your vote. Which one wins?

Pairwise Centers PolicyPairwise Centers Policy

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If these poles are places fora heater

in an icy cold room:

Pairwise Widens AppealPairwise Widens Appeal

A) Do we put it at the center or in the biggest group?

B) Do we turn on its fan to spread the heat wide?

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1. Can the median voter enact any policy alone?

2. Can fringe voters affect a Pairwise tally?

3. Does Pairwise favor policies with wide appeal?

4. Should first-choice votes count more?

5. Does Pairwise set a “winning threshold”?

6. Do votes “move” from one choice to the next?

7. Where could you use Pairwise voting?

Pairwise QuestionsPairwise Questions

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Small groups can use tally boards. Big groups use paper ballots.

Old ballots allow a “yes” vote to only one candidate, “no” to all the rest; This polarizes voters.

Full-choice ballots: Rank 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd ... Reveal moderate points of view.

Full-Choice BallotsFull-Choice Ballots

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Ties are allowed. Fill only one “O” on each line.

Vote HereVote Here

Ranks

Best Worst

Names 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Perot o o o o o o Clinton o o o o o oEdwards o o o o o o Bush o o o o o oWrite In

o o o o o o

Chairperson from a plurality to a majority;

Council from a plurality to three quarters;

Budget from agenda shards to the whole;

Policy from a splintering sequential agenda to the strongest overall majority.

Strengthen democracy by expanding the base of power, the voters supporting the:

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Stronger Votes & MandatesStronger Votes & Mandates

ConclusionsConclusions

Better voting rules are fast, easy and fair.

They organize powerful groups

supporting popular choices.

Politics is more principled with

fair shares for reps and money,

true majorities for presidents and policies.

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Blank black slide

AccurateDemocracy.com has pages on the logic, uses and effects of voting rules, plus a teacher’s guide, printer-ready cards and software for anonymous voting.

For anonymity on a tabletop, put your ballot in a box and pull out another voter’s, or a “mailed-in” ballot.

Only small groups can use tally boards for actual voting. Larger groups use paper ballots tallied by computer.

In PracticeIn Practice

Booklets $3.95, 20 for $59 includes shipping.© 2003-2006, Robert Loring, Loring@AccurateDemocracy.com

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No “dumping”.Put only one card in a column.Give your tall card to your favorite item.Don’t waste a vote on top of a full column.

Each column holds just $ .So a costly item must fill several columns.

MMV Funds Public GoodsMMV Funds Public Goods

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In Budget Refill Voting for departments:

A big agency has several columns to fill.

The columns each need $100... for the agency to reach last year’s budget; that is its refill line.

A supporter’s card helps refill a column. Voters can push it above its goal line. But its gain is another program's loss.

Budget Refill VotingBudget Refill Voting

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A council of 20 decides each item needs modest support from 10 members to restore its funding. So a column needs 10 cards from 10 voters to reach its refill line.

They want to budget 4 low-cost activities with 1 column each, plus 3 costly programs with 2 each. Those 10 columns X 10 cards to refill = 100 cards.

The 100 cards / 20 voters = 5 cards for each voter; that's 1 double and 3 singles. You may put only 1 of your cards in a column.

BRV by the NumbersBRV by the Numbers

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Set target budgets and prioritize them.

Reacting is key!

Stop when the timer sounds.You lose cards that are not on the board.

A two-thirds majority may reopen voting.

BRV Sets Many BudgetsBRV Sets Many Budgets

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1. Does each voter have movable votes?

2. Do departments have finish lines?

3. Can your second choice hurt your first?

4. Should voters see a rep’s grants?

5. Who could use Budget Refill Voting?

BRV QuestionsBRV Questions

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