Thread by @DonaldKronos

This Twitter thread explains how the #evolution of even the primitive election #FPTF system still used in too many elections can be guided to produce a much more democratic election system, through the accumulation of simple changes.
➡ #Approval ➡ #Score ➡ #STAR ➡ #BRAMYIR

#BRAMYIR offers the benefits of #ApprovalVoting, #ScoreVoting, & #RankedChoiceVoting, plus the benefit of a balanced ballot, while encouraging honest voting & discouraging attempts to game the system with dishonest strategic voting such as votes for the mere lesser of two evils.

It's easy to improve on the common single faceted first past the post voting system, and it's easy to make positive changes add up to positive evolution. #RankedChoiceVoting is an improvement, we can do better then that with the simple removal of a single voting restriction.

#RankedChoiceVoting allows any voter to cast a multifaceted vote, but counts only one facet of it. Which facet gets voted and which parts of the vote are thrown away gets decided in an instant runoff process. #ApprovalVoting counts all facets of a vote rather than just one.

The common single faceted #FirstPastThePost system can be changed into a more inclusive #ApprovalVoting system by removing the restriction on how many candidates a voter can vote for with regard to a given elected position. This restriction should be removed wherever it exists.

Once there is no restriction to prevent a voter from casting more than one facet of their vote, good candidates will no longer need to quit before voting even starts in order to avoid taking votes away from candidates cuisine at the moment more likely to beat the worst candidate.

#ApprovalVoting can later be easily converted into #ScoreVoting by updating the voting system and equipment used to allow either full approval or partial approval to be expressed for any number of candidates, for example by giving any candidate a percentage approval rating.

Likewise, #ScoreVoting can easily be changed into #StarVoting or directly into #BRAMYIR voting, and #StarVoting can likewise be easily converted into #BRAMYIR. But the easiest positive change to start with is to remove the restriction on how many candidates a voter can vote for.

#BRAMYIR is similar to #StarVoting in that it is calculated using scores rather than ranks and looks at all scores in the first round, but unlike #StarVoting this process is repeated with the remaining candidates for as many rounds as it takes.

Also unlike #StarVoting, the voter has a choice with #BRAMYIR of voting with scores or ranks, or using simple approval voting, and also has the option to vote directly against candidates rather than for candidates, to handle the event of the voter seeing no acceptable candidates.

#BRAMYIR is derived from #BIRNY and internally uses a score voting system. It allows score voting, for which the voter may specify a range of possible scores, but defaults to ranked choice if not otherwise specified such that the number 1 represents a full power vote.

#BRAMYIR is a variant of #BRIRES with a normalization system to preserve the relative strengths within a milti-part vote while maximizing the positive support expressed and maximizing the disapproval vote of any voter whose approved candidates are eliminated in the runoff.

#BRIRES stands for Balanced Rational Instant Runoff Election Systems, and allows the voter to choose ballot style such as #ScoreVoting, #ApprovalVoting, or #RankedChoiceVoting, and also allows voters the option of using a #BalancedBallot to cast a true #NegativeVote.

#BRAMYIR has two different ballots to choose from. In a #PeoplesPrimary only the simple #ApprovalVoting ballot would be used. It's basically the same as a first past the post ballot, except without the restriction to only pick one candidate for each position up for election.

In the general election, one can choose between the simple #AprovalVoting ballot or the more advanced full #BRAMYIR ballot which allows votes for or against candidates and defaults to ranked choice voting style but also allows the option of using vote scores like in #RangeVoting.

For each available elected seat or position being voted on, the full ballot allows the voter to cast a vote of approval or a vote of disapproval and, by default, to rank the importance of that part of their vote, representing first priority as 1, second priority as 2, and so on.

For security it is recommended that the voter mark their ballot as #RankedChoice when using this method, although if not marked otherwise this is the method that will be assumed by default in processing the ballot. Alternatively, the voter may mark the ballot as #ScoreVoting.

Although the voter may vote for or against any candidate and may choose to vote for some and against others with regard to the same elected position, it is recommended that the voter cast votes of approval or disapproval regarding candidates for the same position but not both.

It is also recommended that the voter should vote for candidate that they support rather than voting against candidates, except in the case of positions for which there are no candidates available that the voter honestly supports but there are candidates that the voter opposes.

Alternatively the simple #ApprovalVoting ballot may be used in the general election by voters who don't care for the option to vote against a candidate or the option to rank or score different candidates. On such a ballot, each approval mark would count as a value of one.

It should be made known to the voter that there is a choice of either ballot style. If the voter cannot decide which to use, the approval ballot should be given for the sake of simplicity. In a People's Primary, the option to vote against a candidate should not be given.

More generally, it would be better not to give the option to vote against a candidate in the primaries, since unwanted candidates can be filtered out by the general election process and it is better to have more options in the general election when allowed to cast a full vote.

Whether or not a voter has cast a vote in a political party's primary should not affect that voter's option to vote in the People's Primary since political party primaries and caucuses are private organization events and NOT actual government elections.

Any #PeoplesPrimary votes cast as ranked choice votes would be converted to their multiplicative inverse scores for the sake of counting. Approval votes would all be converted to a value or 1 each. Score votes would be divided by the largest score given, for normalization.

In a #PeoplesPrimary, there is no need for a runoff. The votes would simply be added up with regard to each candidate and the total checked to determine whether or not enough approval has been expressed to place that candidate on the general election ballot.

If a cap were to be placed on the number of candidates that could be on the general election ballot for a given office or position, higher scoring candidates would get priority over lower scoring candidates. For example, the 50 top scoring candidates, in the case of a cap of 50.

#TopTwoPrimary
California currently uses a system in most local elections called Top-Two Primaries, in which candidates run against each other in the primaries regardless of political affiliation or lack thereof, usually using the single faceted first past the post voting system.

#TopTenPrimary
Removing the #VoteForOnlyOne restriction would also remove the need to have only two candidates in the general election, allowing California's #TopTwoPrimary to be replaced by a #TopTenPrimary in which the top ten vote-getters would move on to the general election.

Using an #ApprovalVoting or #ScoreVoting system, a #TopTenPrimary would allow any number of candidates to run against each other in the primaries regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof, and the ten top scoring candidates would move on to compete in the general election.

All ballots should also have spaces to optionally write in one or more candidates that are not already available on the ballot. This is especially important in the primaries so that voters have the option to stage a write-in campaign for an unregistered candidate.

For the general election things are a bit more complex since the object is to eliminate less wanted candidates & choose only enough wanted candidates to fill the available seats, rather than merely approving candidates to be on the ballot, as that step is done in the primaries.

#BRAMYIR counts votes much like any #BIRNY system, except that the normalization would maximize #PositiveVotes or #NegativeVotes when only one or the other remains, but would split that maximization when both remain, in order to discourage gaming the system.

Each voter would be free to prioritize or rank #PositiveVotes and #NegativeVotes in any order, but could not strengthen their vote for one candidate by voting against all other candidates or strengthen their vote against one candidate by voting for all other candidates. #BRAMYIR

Unlike ordinary ranked-choice voting, #BRAMYIR doesn't look at just the highest top rank of a vote, but rather accounts at each stage of the runoff for each uneliminated candidate indicated by the vote, while preserving the specified order & strength of preference.

As an additional option, any voter could choose to give all or part of their vote to "None" with regard to a particular available seat or position being voted on, effectively casting the indicated portion of their vote as a #NoneOfTheAbove vote in that election contest. #BRAMYIR

When voting as ranked choice on a #BRAMYIR ballot, the voter can choose to give any rank to zero or more candidates, meaning that they can skip any unwanted ranks and can also list candidates as tied for the same rank. Even if that means giving all approved candidates rank 1.

Giving all approved candidates rank 1 is exactly what the simpler #ApprovalVoting style ballot does, so of course the voter can choose to do likewise manually. As another example, a voter might give 3 candidates rank 2, & 5 other candidates each rank 11. It's their choice.

Once all votes have been cast and the deadline for accepting for new votes has passed, processing of votes would begin.
The general election would be processed as a runoff, with records kept of each stage of the runoff process. #BRAMYIR

Votes cast on an #ApprovalVoting ballot would be treated as a score of 1 for each indicated approval. This will be explained in detail here and then an explanation of counting vote scores from full #BRAMYIR ballots will follow.

Since the simple ballot would only allow casting votes of full approval regarding available candidates & not disapproval or partial approval, each approval vote cast on such a ballot would neither have to be converted nor normalized & would always have a value of positive one.

The simple approval ballot would not have to be marked as ranked choice voting or score voting because each vote cast on it would automatically represent a rank one and would also be counted as both a raw score of one and a normalized score of one. #BRAMYIR

Processing the full advanced #BRAMYIR ballots would require a few extra steps which will be as explained here. These are of course not steps that would have to be taken by the voter, but rather steps to count and process the votes once they have been cast.

On the full balanced ballot, unless the voter has indicated use of scores rather than ranks, convert ranks to their multiplicative inverse scores. These raw approval scores and disapproval scores regarding all remaining candidates will be used at each stage of the runoff process.

The runoff process starts with all available candidates in the first round. In each round with more available candidates than open seats for the given position, one candidate is eliminated and the next round begins without that candidate. Each round proceeds as follows.

With regard to each remaining candidate voted for or against and not ret eliminated by the runoff process, divide each raw score by the sum of the largest raw approval score plus the largest raw disapproval score, to produce normalized scores for use in this round of the runoff.

Add the normalized scores to this round's total votes for and against the candidates they represent approval or disapproval of respectively. Do this regarding all non-eliminated candidates which the voter has voted for or against. Complete this process for each voter's ballot.

Record each remaining candidate's total approval score and total disapproval score for this round of the runoff process, and subtract each candidate's total disapproval score from that candidate's total approval score to get and record that candidate's net approval score.

#BRAMYIR is counted as normalized balanced score voting in each round of the runoff process, with each round eliminating the candidate with the lowest total net vote score. When all remaining candidates are tied or no more candidates remain than open seats, that's the last round.

In the unlikely event of an exact tie for lowest total net vote score, with enough candidates not included in that tie to fill the open seats, all of those lowest scoring candidates would be eliminated. Ties should be rare but contingencies for them should be available.

If more candidates remain for a given position than open seats for that position, then the runoff continues with the next round, starting by resetting the totals counts to begin with a score of 0 votes for or against any candidate at the beginning of the new round. #BRAMYIR

The remaining candidate or candidates at the end of the last round for each position up for election would be the winner or winners of the available seats in that position.

#BRAMYIR is a branch in the evolution of Balanced Rational Instant Runoff Election Systems (#BRIRES) and internally supports the full set of features from a variety of popular election systems while improving on some of them.

Here's a link to an unrolled copy of this thread.
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1587420…
To make it easier to read. #BRAMYIR

To help us make elections even more fair, here is a link to a copy of my thread about my #PeoplesPrimary concept
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1295820…
unrolled to make it easier to read.

You can open my #PeoplesPrimary thread directly at

https://twitter.com/DonaldKronos/status/1306167124860137474

to read about using an approval vote People's Primary in an election's first stage primaries with #BIRNY in the general election second stage. 🔥 #PeoplesCampaign 🐦

In case you would like to view the parent of this thread in Twitter, here's a link to that.

https://twitter.com/DonaldKronos/status/1306167124860137474

🔥 This thread is an evolved direct descendant of that thread and its ancestors. 🐦

In case you would like to go to the top of this thread in Twitter, here's a link to it.

https://twitter.com/DonaldKronos/status/1587420192899887104

Please share this with other people to help us get more democracy for all. 🔥 #BRAMYIR #NotMeUS 🐦

While it's probably not the only typographical error, I would like to point out that the first tweet in this thread mistakenly says #FPTF where it should say #FPTP and unfortunately Twitter does not currently have a way to edit a tweet once it has been posted.
My apologies.

And sure enough, I spotted it another error already. Apparently voice to text thought "who seem" sounded just like the word "cuisine", and decided to type that instead. I don't plan to point out all such errors, but I will encourage discussion, including of any errors.