If a recount becomes necessary, the voting method chosen by the
Citizens' Assembly must provide repeatable results. The submission
by Dr. Jon May, MAY-0241 (online) proposed the STV method as used
in Ireland. The single transferable vote is both a preferential and
proportional suffrage extension. The Irish version of STV voting
method has a flaw in its design which was identified in the
following report (on page 23):
If a recount is required, the same input of votes will not
necessarily produce identical results. This is because there is a
random selection of votes on the transfer of a surplus. This could
be avoided if you dispense with the random selection in favour of a
counting method such as the Gregory's rule or method.
The following sites clearly shows the merits of various methods
in dealing with the transfer of the surplus:
(a) Consensus - If everyone agrees that candidate A is better
than B then B will not be elected.
(b) Anonimity - Who you are should not determine your influence
on the election.
(c) Neutrality - (c1) Symmetry - Electoral rules should not
favour one candidate over another. (c2) The voters choice between
candidates A and B should not depend on their views about some
third candidate C.
(d) Transitivity - If candidate A is chosen over B and B is
chosen over C, then A should be chosen over C.
(e) Repeatability - If a recount is done the same votes should
provide identical results.
In the following article criteria (a to d) are used to examine
majority rule (US), runoff (France) rank-order voting and instant
runoff voting (as used in Australia and Ireland):
"The Fairest Vote of All", Scientific American, March
2004, by Partha Dasgupta and Eric Maskin, pp. 92-97).The CA should
identify which of these criteria (a to e), if any, are violated by
the voting method they will choose to recommend for a
referundum.
In order to make every vote count it is also important that the CA
take into consideration the usability design of the ballot. A
poorly designed ballot can easily mislead a voter in making their
selection, as evidenced by the one used in Florida:
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