Spring Break
Math professor links concepts, elections
Fewer candidates leads to easier prediction of the outcome
Breann Schossow
Issue date: 9/22/08 Section: News
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According to math professor Don Reynolds, all three can be determined by social choice functions.
He discussed this topic during his presentation "Why Must Elections be so Chaotic?" Sept. 17 in Hibbard Hall.
Opening with a discussion of the chaotic happenings of the 2000 election, such as foul ballots, false emails and a lack of voting machines, Reynolds changed direction soon after.
"I don't want this to be a political speech," he said, adding that he would rather examine the mechanism used to decide the elections.
To find a social change function, Reynolds said, a societal choice must be determined by individual opinion. In the case of elections, the simplicity of the function depends upon a certain number.
"It turns out to be easy if there (are) only two candidates," Reynolds said, citing examples such as the 2000 election that included George Bush, Al Gore and Ralph Nader.
Individuals who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore if Nader hadn't been present, Reynolds said.
Overall, the higher the number of candidates, the more chaotic the issue becomes, he said.
Reynolds discussed the many social choice functions that could be used to determine the election, and in one example used the best football team in the United States.
The Associated Press uses a social choice function known as the Borda Count to decide, he said.
In this function, voters rank candidates in order of preference, and points are awarded according to ranked position. The candidate with the most points wins.
Reynolds said this is an equitable method and is used in many countries other than the United States.
"Why isn't (the Borda Count) used more widely?" he said. "It seems sensible enough."
Unfortunately, the Borda Count can be subject to manipulation, Reynolds said.
"While on the surface it seems sincere, it is subject to voter mischief," he added.
Other potential social choice functions include the Condorcet method, the Plurality method and the Runoff method.
The Condorcet method compares candidates in pairs and the candidate who wins every pair contest is the winner.
In history, this method replaced the Borda Count for a brief period of time, Reynolds said.
The most common social choice function, the Plurality method, says that the candidate with the majority vote wins.
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