Choice Voting Blog

Two ASUCD Senators resigned Thursday night. According to the ASUCD Constitution, the ASUCD President gets to appoint two replacement Senators. The Senators have full voting privileges and serve until the next ASUCD general election. In next month's election, voters will elect eight senators instead of the usual six. Over the past year, the ASUCD President will have single-handedly picked four out of twelve senators.

Is there a more democratic way to fill vacancies? In California state and federal elections, they hold special elections to fill vacancies. But for choice voting elections, there is a democratic process called the "countback" that requires no additional election. For example, the choice voting city of Cambridge, MA uses the countback to fill vacancies.

The idea behind the countback process is to see who the now-unrepresented voters would have preferred next. Take the exhausted ballots and the ballots that went to elect the resigning candidates. Using those, conduct another choice voting election. By design, countback elections would ensure that the ASUCD Senate continues to represent an accurate cross-section of the voters -- even after several resignations. We illustrate the countback process for three recent vacancies to show what would have happened if it were already in place.

Malik and Ruel resignations

Senators Nafeh Malik and Sean Ruel resigned in January 2005. They were elected in the Fall 2004 election as Student Focus candidates. To find their replacements under countback, conduct a 2-winner choice voting election using the 513 ballots that went to elect each of them in last November's election, along with the election's 485 exhausted ballots:

• round-by-round countback tally to fill Malik and Ruel vacancies*

The final round shows their replacements to be Parisa Manteghi and Christina Chin, also Student Focus candidates. As expected, the countback preserves the original cross-section of voter opinion.

Ackerman resignation

Senator James Ackerman resigned in the spring of 2004. He was elected in the Fall 2003 election as a Student Focus candidate. To find his replacement, conduct a 1-winner choice voting election using the 350 ballots that went to elect him in the Fall 2003 election, along with the election's 327 exhausted ballots:

• round-by-round countback example to fill Ackerman vacancy*

The final round shows his replacement to be Leticia Miller, also a Student Focus candidate. As expected, the countback preserves the original cross-section of voter opinion.

Barr resignation

Senator Adam Barr resigned in November 2004. He was originally elected in the Winter 2004 election under the LEAD slate. To find his replacement, take the 582 ballots that went to elect Adam Barr and the 576 ballots that ended up in the exhausted pile. Then conduct a 1-winner choice voting election with those ballots.

• round-by-round countback tally to fill Barr vacancy

The majority of these voters preferred Jenn de la Vega, a fellow LEAD slate member. So Jenn de la Vega would have won the countback to repace Adam Barr. In contrast, ASUCD President Kalen Gallagher chose Student Focus candidate Cari Ham to replace Barr. Ham was the first-eliminated candidate in the countback above.

This countback was tallied using pSTV, an open-source vote-counting program.

What's Next

There is a movement in ASUCD to adopt a Constitutional amendment to implement the countback process. DCR activists are helping with this change.

*Thanks to Steve Willett of Voting Solutions, LLC for conducting these countback tallies for DCR.