User:RobLa/MAF drafts

This is RobLa's area for publishing old drafts of "Majority approval filter" (a.k.a. "MAF")

Versions

Draft 3

published December 7, 2018

Goal:

Hold a primary election with an Approval Voting-style ballot, providing motivation for all candidates to achieve the highest approval rating, and resulting in a general election Ballot Satisfaction Score of at least 75%. The "Ballot Satisfaction Score" is the percentage of the electorate which approves of at least one candidate on a given ballot.

Candidates advancing to the general election must qualify for one of the following "Pools". Candidates that don't qualify for one of the Pools below are "Non-advanced Candidates". By default, all candidates are Non-advanced Candidates until they qualify for one of these Pools:

"Supermajority Candidate Pool" - all candidates who receive greater than 75% approval
"Plurality Candidate Pool" - all candidates who receive greater than 50% approval, but do not qualify for the Supermajority Candidate Pool. If no candidate receives greater than 50% approval, this pool will contain one candidate with less than 50% approval.
"Opposition Candidate Pool" - a subset of candidates who receive greater than 40% approval, but do not qualify for the Plurality Candidate Pool

Sequential steps for filling the above Pools with qualified candidates:

Select the candidate who receives the highest approval rating. This is the "Top Candidate" and automatically qualifies for the general election ballot by one of the following rules:
- 1a. If the Top Candidate receives greater than 75% approval, add this candidate to the Supermajority Candidate Pool.
- 1b. If the Top Candidate receives less than 75% approval, add this candidate to the Plurality Candidate Pool.
Complete the Supermajority Candidate Pool and the Plurality Candidate Pool using the following rules:
- 2a. Add any Non-advanced Candidates with greater than 75% approval to the Supermajority Candidate Pool
- 2b. Add any Non-advanced Candidates with less than 75% approval, but greater than 50% approval to the Plurality Candidate Pool
Evaluate the Ballot Satisfaction Score (defined above) using the following rules:
- 3a. If the Ballot Satisfaction Score is greater than 75%, candidate selection is complete. Skip to step 5
- 3b. If the Ballot Satisfaction Score is less than 75%, proceed to step 4.
If there is one or more candidates in the Plurality Candidate Pool, attempt to add an equal number qualified candidates to the Opposition Candidate Pool, evaluating each Non-advanced Candidate using the following steps
- 4a. Find the Non-advanced Candidate with the highest approval score.
  - If this candidate has less than 40% approval, no further candidates qualify to be added to the Opposition Candidate Pool. Proceed to step 5.
  - If this candidate has greater than 40% approval, add this candidate to the Opposition Candidate Pool, then proceed to step 4b.
- 4b. Compare the size of the Plurality Candidate Pool and the Opposition Candidate Pool
  - If the Plurality Candidate Pool has more candidates than the Opposition Candidate Pool, skip back to step 3.
  - If the Opposition Candidate Pool contains an equal number of candidates to the Plurality Candidate Pool, proceed to step 5.
Candidate selection is complete. Advance all candidates in the Supermajority Candidate Pool, the Plurality Candidate Pool, and the Opposition Candidate Pool to the general election.

See December email thread "[EM] Approval-based replacement for jungle primary" for more discussion about the evolution of this draft.

Draft 2

published November 22, 2018

Rules for Draft 2:

Select the candidate who receives the highest approval rating. This is the "top candidate" and qualifies for the ballot
- 1a. If the top candidate (and any other candidate) receives greater than 75% approval, add these candidates to the "highly-approved candidate pool"
- 1b. If the top candidate receives less than 75% approval, add the top candidate to the "majority candidate pool"
If the top candidate has been added to the "majority candidate pool", also add a candidate to the “opposition candidate pool”. To be added, this candidate must be the candidate which maximizes the "majority/opposition ballot satisfaction". "ballot satisfaction" generally means voters approve of at least one candidate on a given ballot. "majority/opposition ballot satisfaction" is for a ballot that only contains the "majority candidate pool" and the "opposition candidate pool".
For each candidate who receives over 50% approval, but less than 75% approval:
- 3a. Add this candidate to the "majority candidate pool"
- 3b. Add a candidate to the "opposition candidate pool" who maximizes the "majority/opposition ballot satisfaction" of the electorate (as in step 2)
Eliminate all candidates from the "opposition candidate pool" who have an overall approval rating under 25%
All candidates remaining in the "highly-approved candidate pool", the "majority candidate pool" and the "opposition candidate pool" advance to the general election.

See 2018-11-22 email from RobLa for further commentary.

Draft 1

published November 20, 2018

Rules for Draft 1:

The candidate who receives the highest approval rating (the "front-runner") qualifies for the general election
- Example: if there are 100 voters, and 40 approve of "A" and "B", 30 approve of only "B", and 30 approve of only "C", then
  - "B" advances to the general election, since "B" is approved by 70% of voters.
A second candidate (the "complementary candidate"), who maximizes the approval of the electorate, also qualifies (i.e. by having the highest approval among voters that did not approve of the front-runner). If two candidates both satisfy an equal part of the remaining electorate, the candidate with the highest overall approval rating advances.
- Example: if there are 100 voters, and 40 approve of both "A" and "B", 30 approve of only "B", and 30 approve of only "C", then
  - "B" advances with 70% approval (per step 1)
  - "C" advances (per this step). "B" satisfies 70% of the electorate, and "C" satisfies the other 30%. So, 100% of the voters will be satisfied with one of their choices in the general election.
All candidates who receive over 50% approval ("majority approval candidates") also qualify for the general election
- Example: if there are 100 voters, and 50 approve of "A" and "B", 20 approve of only "B", and 30 approve of only "C", then :
  - "B" advances with 70% approval (per step 1)
  - "C" advances, satisfying the other 30% of the electorate, making the total 100% (step 2)
  - "A" advances as well (having achieved 50% approval)

History of MAF

2018-11-20 - first draft published on electowiki.org and as "Replacing the jungle primary" by User:RobLa

Full discussion history of this method can be found at Talk:Majority approval filter