Do We Vote the Wrong Way?
Abstract: The traditional voting method in the United States uses a single-choice ballot and selects as the winner the candidate that receives the largest number of votes. Since this number of votes might not be a majority, but only a plurality, this type of voting is called plurality voting. But is this a good way to vote? Another method that has recently been piloted in Utah is a method that uses a ranked-choice ballot, and a round-by-round method called instant-runoff. In each round, if no candidate has a majority of top votes, then the candidate with the fewest is eliminated and those ballots that listed the eliminated candidate as the top choice are reallocated to the next highest choice. This continues until a candidate has a majority in a round. But is this a good way to vote? Are there other methods besides these two? And what exactly makes a voting method good anyway?
In this talk, we apply mathematical game theory to this question, discussing the mathematics of voting and what makes an election method effective. To do this, we use the purpose of voting as a guiding lens to evaluate election methods. We will also present several different kinds of election methods as well as known results about elections including ones that suggest where two-party systems arise and whether there is one perfect election method.
This talk is appropriate for faculty, undergraduate students, and a more general audience.
Biography: Alan Parry is an associate professor of mathematics at Utah Valley University. He earned a B.S. in mathematics at Utah State University and a PhD in mathematics at Duke University. Alan has research interests in election theory and differential geometry. In addition, he is interested in the pedagogy of mathematics and mathematics curriculum design at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. He is also the chief content creator for the YouTube mathematics edutainment channel Scholar Sauce.
Contact: Alan.Parry@uvu.edu
Link to Talk (Microsoft Teams)