Talk:Random ballot

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Are there any examples of this method being used by any organisation? LukeSurl

I was going to ask the same. Is this a purely academic concept? Wouter Lievens 15:03, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Presumably an example of a random ballot (with 2 voters and 2 alternatives) would be the coin toss at the start of a sporting event which determines which of the two team captains decides whether to play first or second...? --213.232.66.5 00:37, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

"it undermines majority rule since there is a substantial possibility that the selected voter may be in the minority."

Well yes, but this is less likely to be a problem if the method is used to select memebers of a large group, rather than a single voter. Should this article cover this case, or is that a topic for another article? See also Voting system. This is the method used to select the Council of 500 prytanies in the Athenian democracy. ABostrom 22:30, July 14, 2005 (UTC)

It could be mentioned that this is the most proportional form of democracy you could ever get. In that, a party with 5% of the vote may get 5% of the seats, but that does not necessarily translate into 5% of the power - if able to hold the balance of power and gain significant concessions it could be more than this, but if only a tag-along to a major party, it could be much less power. In random ballots, a party with 5% of the vote has a 5% chance of power - exactly proportional. That does not make it necessarily desirable. -Nichlemn 02:12, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Single Stochastic Vote

Random ballot was promoted - under the name "Single Stochastic Vote" (a parody of Single Transferable Vote) by Henry Potts in the Usenet group uk.politics.electoral around the time of the 1997 General Election. A search of the google archives would probably be productive —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.42.213.163 (talk) 18:33, 15 April 2007 (UTC).