Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus and multiple candidates

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Nov 9, 2009, at 10:32 AM, Jeanne Goodman wrote:

> Something that I have seen done effectively in the past is that each
> community member ranks a preference. Total the rankings and find the  
> two
> lowest candidates and ask for consensus on those candidates.

A very good source on preferential voting is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_voting

The version I prefer is the "5 stars" that are used in the Olympics,  
arts judging, restaurant reviews, etc. but it hasn't been tested in  
governance elections. The most tested method is instant run-off in  
which all candidates are ranked. On the first count, the choice with  
the least votes is dropped as an option. The ballots of the people who  
had chosen that option as their first choice are now counted according  
to their second choice. That process is repeated until one choice  
remains.

One value of the 5 star preferential voting is that the final choice  
will be everyone's first or second choice, depending on the number of  
people being ranked and except for outliers.

What I like about this kind of voting is that it doesn't require a yes  
or no. If there are ten options 5 or all of them might be perfectly  
satisfactory to me. Not being forced to choose only one records my  
preferences much more accurately.

The only true election by consensus is the sociocratic governance  
method of open elections. Short of that, preferential voting provides  
the most representative choice.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org