Equal Vote Criterion: Difference between revisions

Some voting methods go further and actually guarantee an Equal Vote, assuming that the ballot is not left blank. STAR Voting, which is binary in the final round, guarantees that every vote cast is in equally weighted, regardless of the initial scores given. Approval voting also guarantees an Equal Vote. If Score voting ballots are normalized to ensure that a minimum and maximum score is always given then Score voting also guarantees an Equal Vote.

 

 

Any voting method will satisfy the Equal Vote Criterion in elections with two candidates only.

 

The Equal Vote Criterion is directly related to the concept of an Equally Weighted Vote and the concept of One Person, One Vote. In 1964, Wesberry v. Sanders, The U.S. Supreme Court declared that equality of voting - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_man,_one_vote#:~:text=One%20man%2C%20one%20vote%20(or,have%20equal%20representation%20in%20voting.&text=The%20British%20trade%20unionist%20George,in%20political%20pamphlets%20in%201880. one person, one vote] - means that '''"the''' '''weight and worth of the citizens' votes as nearly as is practicable must be the same."'''

 

The 1964, Wesberry v. Sanders case cited above addressed Gerrymandering. In the case of district lines it's impossible to ensure that elections will not favor one faction or the other over time as populations grow and change, but it is "practicable" to prevent and mitigate this phenomena. However in the case of vote-splitting and the Electoral Collage achieving a perfectly Equally Weighted Vote is fully possible.

 

Any voting method or election which passes the Test of Balance passes the Equal Vote Criterion and can be said to guarantee an Equally Weighted Vote. The test of balance is defined as the following "Any way I vote, you should be able to vote in an equal and opposite fashion. Our votes should be able to cancel each other’s out." In other words, if an election was tied and one person cast a vote, there must always be a way to cast an opposite vote which would bring the election back to tied.