Short Circuit Voting

[DGDanforth]

Shall the BlackBox Center adopt the method of 'Short Circuiting' voting?

A short circuit occurs when the difference between the most popular category so far and the next popular category is greater than the number of missing votes. When a short circuit occurs then no matter what the missing members vote on, the most popular category (option, choice) can not be beaten. Short circuits can occur even when there is no quorum. Short circuiting is simply a way to reduce the time it takes to make a decision about a vote.

[Ivan Denisov]

I am not understanding the consequences of this voting. I think, that it is not clear which rule you suggest to add without pseudocode or extra terminology.

[DGDanforth]

Code: Select all

	PROCEDURE ShortCircuitVote* (VAR option: INTEGER): BOOLEAN;
	VAR time: LONGINT; flag: BOOLEAN;
	BEGIN
		WHILE (time < cutOff) & ~Short(count) DO IncrementTime(time) END;
		flag :=  Short(count) OR Quorum(count);
		IF flag THEN flag := Preference(option, count)  END; (*option that wins the vote*)
		RETURN flag
	END ShortCircuitVote;

While the time is less than the cutoff time and there is no short circuit keep incrementing the time (and acquiring votes as specified in the array 'count'). When the WHILE loop exits either a short circuit occurred or the time ran out. The flag is set to true (successful vote) if either there was a short circuit or a quorum was reached.
If flag is FALSE the measure fails. If flag is TRUE then it is still necessary to check if there was a preference amongst the options. If the best and second best have an equal count there is no preference and the measure fails otherwise the measure succeeds and the option with the largest number of votes is the result of the poll.
-Doug

[Ivan Denisov]

Which rule you are suggesting to add without pseudocode or extra terminology?

[Ivan Denisov]

I against time limit for the voting. But I for Josef rule about stopping the voting if new voices can not change the result. I can not understand the consequences of this exact voting. It is not clear now.

[DGDanforth]

The rule to be added is the Short Circuit rule as stated.

I have simply formalized Josef's suggestion. The consequences are simply that some votes will end sooner using this rule than if the rule is not used. The result of a poll will not change if the Short Circuit rule is implemented.

[Ivan Denisov]

Josef said nothing about time limit, however your pseudocode have some ideas about time. So you have just misinformed me and others. Please clarify the rule without pseudocode.

[DGDanforth]

Every poll has a duration. A date is set for when the poll ends. That is the cutoff time that I specified in the pseudo code. That is not new. That is not a change to how we currently vote.

For example this Poll runs till 09 Sep 2014 15:25. That is the cutoff time for the Short Circuit Voting measure.

[Ivan Denisov]

Every poll has a duration. A date is set for when the poll ends. That is the cutoff time that I specified in the pseudo code. That is not new. That is not a change to how we currently vote.

For example this Poll runs till 09 Sep 2014 15:25. That is the cutoff time for the Short Circuit Voting measure.

No, we have no rule about cutoff time now! You should left "Run poll for:" option equal to 0. Now you made two polls against our rules. Please, be careful.

[DGDanforth]

Ivan,
Are you getting hung up on the words 'cutoff time'?
How about poll duration? Is that better?
The duration for this poll is 5 days. That is how I set it.
But saying 5 days is ambiguous for the person who first sees the poll on day 4.
So cutoff time = start time + duration. Is that better?
Or do you prefer 'stop time'?