The hottest Voting Systems Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

Futarchy, Distortions from Hedging, and Other Thoughts

Something to Consider • 79 implied HN points • 28 Jun 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Governance Prediction Markets Economic Policy Risk management Voting Systems
  1. Futarchy is a new way to make decisions where people vote on what they want to achieve, but experts decide the best way to get there using prediction markets. This means we focus on outcomes instead of specific policies.
  2. When people are risk-averse, they might prefer safer options, and this can affect the choices made in a futarchy setup. It’s important to balance between achieving high goals and taking on too much risk.
  3. Even though prediction markets are useful, they can be skewed by people's efforts to hedge against risks. This means prices might not always reflect the true chances of outcomes, but they can still provide valuable information.

Community Notes and potential vote brigading

Conspirador Norteño • 36 implied HN points • 02 Nov 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Voting Systems Data Analysis Community Engagement
  1. Community Notes on the X platform use a unique voting system to check facts, requiring a mix of helpful ratings. This makes it harder to manipulate which information is shown.
  2. Recent voting patterns show large bursts of upvotes or downvotes after political posts, often favoring right-leaning perspectives. This suggests some users might be trying to game the system.
  3. Out of many notes reviewed, most aimed to correct or add context to political content. While some notes were rated 'helpful,' others still need more varied ratings to be visible.

Problems of Majority Voting

Something to Consider • 0 implied HN points • 03 Feb 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Voting Systems Political parties Legislative Process Government Structure Elections
  1. Majority voting can create problems because it doesn't always consider everyone's true preferences. If people can't trade votes or favors, decisions may not reflect what the community really wants.
  2. Political parties are important for maintaining stable voting majorities. If parties can't control their members, it leads to chaos and ineffective governance, as they have to make too many compromises.
  3. To improve the voting process, we could consider new systems like jungle primaries or ranked choice voting. These changes might help ensure better candidate choices and encourage cooperation among party members.

The 2012 GOP nomination, as told by the 1860 general election

Matt’s Five Points • 0 implied HN points • 07 Mar 12
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Elections Candidates Political parties Voting Systems Historical Analysis
  1. In a multi-candidate election, it's possible for a winner to get less than half the votes due to a split among other candidates. This makes understanding how the voting system works very important.
  2. The winner-takes-all approach in some states means that a candidate can lose the popular vote but still win overall by securing enough electors from states where they had a plurality.
  3. Political tensions and divisions can lead to multiple candidates running, making it hard for opponents to unite against a common front, which can affect the outcome of the election.

Cold Fusion

Matt’s Five Points • 0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 10
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Elections Political parties History Voting Systems Political theory
  1. The 1860 Presidential election was unique because there were four candidates from three different parties, leading to a split vote. Lincoln won mainly in the North while the other candidates divided votes in the South.
  2. Fusion voting allows different candidates from the same party to share electors, which could help defeat a stronger opponent. In 1860, candidates could have coordinated better to combine votes against Lincoln but didn't due to chaos and personal conflicts.
  3. Successful fusion in 1860 might have changed the election's outcome and could have created a new way to handle party rivalries today. If electors from different candidates had coordinated, they could have won key states.
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