Quiz time slot

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
Number of replies: 14
Hi,
I have wondering if we could hold a runoff vote between 11:15 and 13:15. I think it would be weird if a time slot that most people voted against won...

Also this is quite fitting to the class since it's about democracy
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Re: Quiz time slot

by Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino -

Hello,

The quiz was done using Approval voting. Most people thus selected for 11:15.

- CS-234

In reply to Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
Most people did in fact not vote for 11:15 though. In fact, only 39% did.
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Re: Quiz time slot

by Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino -
39% is incorrect because we gave everyone the ability to select as many options as one "approved" (this is Approval voting). You can learn more about Approval voting here: https://electionscience.org/library/approval-voting/). Recalculating based on the raw results, there was just about 50% of the class who chose the first option.
In reply to Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
Well then I assume that the correct number is the 44% that Moodle indicates which is still not a majority
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Quiz time slot

by Haoqian Zhang -
It might be good to know a limitation of voting:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow%27s_impossibility_theorem
In reply to Haoqian Zhang

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
I don’t think this is a very good argument though. A runoff system clearly reflects the will of the students more accurately and doesn’t require much effort to implement. Obviously ranked-choice voting would be better but that would be harder to implement.

I think it would be quite bizarre that a class about democracy used such a flawed democratic model…
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
I understand that due to the theorem it is impossible to make a perfect system but that doesn’t imply that we can’t do much better than what is currently being used
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Quiz time slot

by Haoqian Zhang -
Can you explain mathematically what is better?

Haoqian
In reply to Haoqian Zhang

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
Do you disagree that a runoff system represents the will of the students better? A runoff system enables voters to not only express their preferred choice, but then also lets them express which of the remaining (most popular) choices they prefer if neither of them got a majority during the first round, whereas the current system does not.

In a scenario where neither of the choices got close to a majority (none even cracked 40%), I think evaluating people’s preferences beyond simply their preferred choice is important.
In reply to Andrew Siminszky

Quiz time slot

by Haoqian Zhang -
Besides, I'm curious because we did not announce a run-off voting. If we do it now, how would this new information influence the result?
In reply to Haoqian Zhang

Quiz time slot

by Andrew Siminszky -
I would say no since the first round of a runoff system is exactly the same. It simply adds a second round afterward