If you\u2019ve spent any time talking about American politics recently, you\u2019ve probably heard about how the electoral college gives priority to certain voters or how some states make it harder for some people to vote than others. You may have even signed a petition promoting a national popular vote or rallied to enfranchise citizens who have been traditionally not allowed to vote. The idea that voting isn\u2019t exactly fair is probably not surprising. What might be surprising is that, no matter how hard we try, we can\u2019t actually design a voting system that is fair.<\/p>\n
This block I am enrolled in MA110 \u2013 The Mathematics of Social Choice. This class focuses on how groups of people make decisions. The first week of the class, we examined a variety of different voting systems<\/em> (which is a fancy way of saying ways to take people\u2019s preferences and decide who wins an election). What we found out through exploration of these systems is that for elections with more than two candidates, no voting system is truly fair.<\/p>\n So what do I mean by fair? Before I list the criteria that we outlined in this class, I suggest taking a couple minutes to think about what you think a fair voting system might look like\u2026.. Okay, got your list? Now let\u2019s compare.<\/p>\n Here are some of the things we decided should be fulfilled by a fair voting system:<\/p>\n How does this list stack up to your list? Did we come up with any criteria that you hadn\u2019t thought of or do you have any you want to add to our list? Hopefully, you\u2019ll agree that these are some important things to have in a voting system. Here\u2019s the thing though \u2013 there doesn\u2019t exist a single voting system (no matter how hard you try) that will satisfy all of these criteria at the same time. There\u2019s a whole Theorem (called Arrow\u2019s Theorem) that proves why this is the case. Ironically, one of the systems that is closest to meeting these criteria is a dictatorship! (It only violates the ideal that every vote should matter the same.)<\/p>\n At this point, maybe you\u2019re resolved that it might be okay to drop one or two of these criteria (though not the one that lets it be a dictatorship!). If you\u2019re okay with that, then I do have some solutions for you! Check back for a later blog post with some ideas for voting systems that seem okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve spent any time talking about American politics recently, you\u2019ve probably heard about how the electoral college gives priority to certain voters or how some states make it harder for some people to vote than others. You may have even signed a petition promoting a national popular vote or rallied to enfranchise citizens who … <\/p>\n\n