Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!texbell!attctc!floydf
From: floydf@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Floyd Ferguson)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: why sigh.aquaria "voting" stunk
Message-ID: <10317@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
Date: 23 Nov 89 15:50:06 GMT
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 44

(I tried posting this from work, but it did not seem to get out, so
 if this is a repeat, please tolerate)

The problem with the s.a vote, and all votes, is that
  1. they are not votes, but polls
	which means they are stochastic processes, rather than legal
  2. knowing the day to day vote tallies provides a partisan an inordinate
     advantage, namely, the precise amount needed to win, and this information
     becomes available _very_early_ in the process.

ARGUMENTATION:

Consider the pattern on incoming votes. I suspect these will be poisson
distributed, with a mean sometime between 5 and 10 days from the time the
call for vote is posted. (Someone who has run a vote with big turn-out 
could check, maybe comp.mac.whatever, or comp.dsp, or mail me the dates
of arriving votes and I'll test the distribution.) 

That means that somewhere arond 70% of the votes will have arrived before
the voting is half over! And if Richard (or Bob Webber, or whoever) knows
this, sufficient time remains to collect legitimate votes to "win" the
contest. The opposite side, not knowing this, sits in silence waiting for
time to be called, and find out how bad they lost. (But lose they will! No
vote run by a partisan ever need fail!)

CONCLUSIONS:

Make two minor changes in the current guidelines:
   -- provide a mechanism for impartial vote counting. I think ncoast
      has volunteered. During the discussion period, allow either of 
      the sides to request independent counting.
   -- post the dates with the names in the final vote count.

Failing to do this will saddle any new voting scheme with today's problem:
i.e.: intrinsic knowledge regarding the polling provides inordinate advantage
if limited to only one side, which no amount of rules or complexity in voting
mechanism can overcome.
And implementing these two little changes may make major changes in the 
guidelines superflous.

                          ________________________________________
And until then, remember, WHOEVER RUNS THE VOTE ***W*I*N*S***
                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
attctc!floydf