Talk:Electoral system

Naming

See Talk:Voting system#Naming -- RobLa (talk) 23:18, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

...and Category_talk:Voting_methods#Voting_systems_or_voting_methods.3F. I very slightly agree that "method" is better than "system", but both are ambiguous. — Psephomancy (talk) 00:33, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Agreed, and I'm fine with either "system" or "method". My main concern was over "electoral" versus "voting". Sorry for spreading the discussion out in such a confusing way. I've made a few bold edits today as I've restructured things a bit, including renaming this article from "Voting system" to "Electoral system". I'll probably say more over at Category_talk:Voting_methods about other changes I'd like to make, after I remove some of the merge banners. -- RobLa (talk) 01:14, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I'll leave the decision to you guys, but I'd say that "electoral" is a more complex, academic-sounding term than "voting". I think "voting methods" or "voting systems" is a much more approachable, repeatable term for someone who is new to the field. BetterVotingAdvocacy (talk) 01:17, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, that makes sense, too. Ultimately they're all kind of synonyms. 01:30, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Synonyms

I don't believe that "vote" and "election" are synonyms, so I also believe that English Wikipedia made the correct choice when they chose the current naming of the wikipedia:Electoral system article. I just noticed that (before today) the primary English label on wikidata:Q182985 was "voting system", but I just changed it to "electoral system", which aligns with its Spanish counterpart ("sistema electoral"). I'll grant that "voting system" sounds less academic, but it's also far more easily confused with the mechanical systems used for voting (e.g. paper ballots, electronic voting machines, etc).

I agree with the observation that User:Psephomancy made in oldid=10408 of Category_talk:Voting methods (on 16 April 2020 , 20:06). To quote: "Someone [back in 2017] said "Voting method" and "voting system" both carry a plain English primary meaning of the process of casting a vote, i.e. paper, mechanical or electronic.' which makes sense to me." . Here's the 2017 page move discussion that Psephomancy referenced: English Wikipedia February 2017 page move discussion from "Voting system" to "Electoral system" Given that's where English Wikipedia ended up after a long debate, it seems sensible to follow their lead.-- RobLa (talk) 02:05, 22 April 2020 (UTC)