Greg Dennis

Software Engineer, MIT PhD, Electoral Reform Enthusiast

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@rickhasen Yes, he was: https://t.co/4wkSnkteE0

[Arlington Town Mtg @ArlTownMeeting]

The recommended vote on Article 18, HOME RULE LEGISLATION / RANKED CHOICE VOTING, passes 189-29-2.

[FairVote @fairvote]

New resource alert, by @VotingNerd and @DebTheOtis! Best practices for using #RankedChoiceVoting to endorse candidates. https://t.co/7ugFHUGktJ

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

A new piece I wrote for @DemocracySOS arguing that RCV is a superior tool for depolarizing our politics than Condorcet voting methods:
https://t.co/dw9AZCg1Oq

[Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley @RepPressley]

Ranked choice voting honors the foundational principles of representative democracy.

And with widespread efforts to suppress the vote, we must act at every level of govt to empower the electorate.

TY @Ruthzee, @juliaforboston & @ClrHenrySantana for leading the charge in Boston.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@cdory28167 @alexjago51 Those 2-winner elections are to boards with an odd number of seats, so in a three year cycle, the majority would still retain majority control.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@cdory28167 That isn't true. Multi-winner elections decided by RCV are proportional, so the will of the majority will capture a majority of seats and maintain majority control.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@hapi_phace @GBHNews Eric Adams won a plurality, so he would have won under the prior system as well. Has the current system only produced good candidates?

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@anthonymamore @GBHNews The people of Boston already voted, and more than 60% clearly said they wanted it. https://t.co/aaFClzu3a4

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@newrepublic How many columns has David Masciotra written calling for Ranked Choice Voting for presidential elections? As far as I can tell, zero. All this energy expended to blame candidates and not an ounce for fixing the system.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@newrepublic How many columns has David Masciotra written calling for Ranked Choice Voting for presidential elections? As far as I can tell, zero. All this energy expended to blame candidates and not an ounce for fixing the system.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@Nahanni_ @ParnurChris @DrJillStein @CommunityNotes Again, please read the thread above. Wikipedia is imprecise there or at least highly debatable. The first mathematical formulation of "vote-splitting" was Independence of Clones (IC). IC violations are a subset of IIA violations, a subset that RCV prevents.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@Nahanni_ @ParnurChris @DrJillStein @CommunityNotes Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. You should read the full thread above to come up to speed.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@Nahanni_ @ParnurChris @DrJillStein @CommunityNotes Those are failures of IIA, not of IC (vote-splitting).

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@GameTheoryGuys @damnitruben @Annie_Kallen @DrJillStein It should be a controversial axiom, in my opinion. As Tideman argues in his book, the addition of a new candidate elicits new information about voter preferences. To say we shouldn't derive a new "best winner" in light of that new information is suspect.

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@damnitruben @DrJillStein IIA implies IC, but not the inverse. That is, it is possible to satisfy IC without satisfying IIA, as Ranked Pairs, IRV, & other methods do. These methods eliminate "vote-splitting" but not necessarily all other "spoiler" scenarios (again, accepting your formulation of "spoiler")

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@damnitruben @DrJillStein You continue to confuse 2 concepts. (1) IIA, which you claim is a mathematical formulation of the "spoiler effect." That's debatable but for the sake of argument let's accept it here. (2) Independence of Clones (IC), which Tideman offers as a formulation of "vote-splitting." ...

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@damnitruben @DrJillStein Well, you could have just found it on Wikipedia among other places:
https://t.co/MLp3MXc27p

But at your request, here is the relevant section of the Tideman paper:

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@damnitruben @DrJillStein I already cited Tideman's paper above: https://t.co/o7dFLhUhs8

[Greg Dennis @VotingNerd]

@damnitruben @Annie_Kallen @DrJillStein You are trying to define all failures of IIA as "vote-splitting." That dog won't hunt. Vote-splitting cases are violations of Independence of Clones, and these comprise a proper _subset_ of IIA violations.