Department of Federal Elections: Homelycooking, SoFE

[Adam Griffin]

Does the SoFE have an update on the current results?

[Adam Griffin]

I ask the DoFE to review this conversation and issue a formal statement of clarification on the situation.

[Adam Griffin]

Where did this come from?  Is there a thread about it?  I can't find one.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=149059.msg3685734#msg3685734

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=158345.msg3688436#msg3688436

[Adam Griffin]

You didn't count my vote...

You were not registered - citizens fall off the rolls if they miss 3 consecutive Federal elections.


Out of curiosity: why was Polnut's vote for President ruled invalid? I realize that he posted in the regular voting booth, but no Senate absentee ballot was furnished (and I see his Senate ballot was valid).

[Adam Griffin]

First Round:

Pink are ties; "L = Labor, F = Federalist, N = NM-AM"
Oceania = Fed
Puerto Rico = Lab



Final Round:

[Adam Griffin]

No states for me?  

Look at West Virginia's different color.

Also, Hawaii. Tied in VT & LA, too. But...

I think you missed Maine.

I used homely's regional counts, which apparently didn't have you listed in Maine. There could be other errors. Crap.

[Adam Griffin]

Was just looking at the current rough count and noticed that quota is exactly reached in the final round (Simfan/Alfred). What happens if neither candidate hits the quota in a head-to-head match-up? Has that ever happened before? Would the candidate with the fewest votes simply be eliminated?

[Adam Griffin]

I mean PR's vote could be invalidated because he changed regions during the election period,

PR didn't move - he's been in the ME for some time, with a restriction on leaving until 6/26.

[Adam Griffin]

FTR, I've advocated secret ballots multiple times over the years, but no one seems to want them except when they're on the losing end of an election. It'll never happen because of that, unfortunately.

[Adam Griffin]

I remember mentioning it before somewhere, but there's a way to create a system that allows people to vote publicly without their votes being deciphered by the public, but it'd be a hell of a lot of work for the DoFE.

First, you'd need the DoFE and another independent entity (perhaps the mod of the board, but seeing as how he doesn't proactively involve himself in the game, it might be difficult to get him to do it) to be aware of an algorithm, equation or variable of sorts for each election. This would change with each election, but let's use an example below to explain:

Candidate A has an identifier of "17"
Candidate B has an identifier of "27"
Candidate C has an identifier of "34"

These identifier would only be known by the DoFE & independent agent. The DoFE would then be responsible for generating and sending via PM a unique ballot to every registered voter. It'd probably be best to send two messages to each person (separating the names of the candidates from the actual ballot, but explaining how they correlate), because inevitably a zombie would quote the entire ballot and give away the formulas that would allow for reverse-engineering of the coded votes.

So, here's a sample ballot:

Candidate A:
[  ] 3185 (3+1+8+5=17)

Candidate B:
[  ] 6984 (6+9+8+4=27)

Candidate C:
[  ] 9898 (9+8+9+8=34)

So you'd just use a random string of numbers for each candidate that all add up to that same number assigned to the candidate. From here, each ballot could be cast publicly but not able to be determined by other users. This is a very simple example, and could actually be decoded by referencing how certain people voted (i.e.: the ones that add up to a certain number are for a certain candidate). It'd still make it a lot more difficult for people to count votes, though (including the DoFE ).

You could create a more complex formula that uses division, multiplication and the like to make it virtually impossible for anyone except the DoFE and independent agent to decipher, but that again is much more work for the DoFE.

It's most likely an unworkable idea given the amount of effort that would have to go into each election, but maybe it'll get people thinking about it.

[Adam Griffin]

Will the ballot be ready for viewing today?

[Adam Griffin]

I was/am away from home and therefore didn't have my spreadsheet with me, but before I saw homely's numbers I had two estimates (61-58 BK & 62-59 BK), so in either case, I'm fairly confident in SoFE's numbers (or at the very least, that BK won by 3).

[Adam Griffin]

One issue: it was Cynic/Griff in October 2013, not Griff/Cynic (though I'm flattered).

Also, what about first round results? That'd make bore's victory look a lot better in comparison.

[Adam Griffin]

What I meant was showing each election's first round results between (presumably) the top two vote-getters. Excluding the most recent one, I don't think we've had an election decided in the first round since June 2011.

[Adam Griffin]

Why was my write in for kaljew not counted?

The last time I had checked the Candidacy Declaration thread, I'm sure that Kalwejt had posted something like "On second thought, never mind" about accepting write-in votes. He must have deleted it. Surely I'm not losing my mind.

You're not, because I saw that post at one point as well.

[Adam Griffin]

Labor registers as progressive.

[Adam Griffin]

With the unfortunate judicial trolling of the past day against the office of Registrar General and the subsequent requirement that I close all operations to the public - including access to the Census Bureau's registered voters list - until there is a resolution, I ask the Department of Federal Elections to delay certification of the constitutional convention delegation election results until such time as the office of Registrar General and the Department of Federal Elections are both able to publish once again and verify the eligibility status of each voter who casts a ballot.

[Adam Griffin]

BaconBacon's vote is invalid because he only registered six days ago. Talleyrand registered in September, so his vote is legit.

It is very late for me to be catching this, but I do not believe BaconBacon was a new registered voter with his registration change on October 3 and I am pretty confident his vote should have been counted.

Previously, it appears he was registered in Colorado as an Independent (April) and then moved to the NE as a Federalist on October 3. I was suspicious when I just noticed this - because I did not remember seeing him de-register nor remember having his name on the sheets under the restrictions to return - and also looked back through the New Register thread. I cannot find any instance in which he de-registered.

Unfortunately, I do not keep historic data on when people de-registered once their cool-downs expire and/or any other limitations like regional movement restrictions expire, but I am pretty confident this was a mistake.

[Adam Griffin]

Four hours to go. My count looks like this:

Adam and Duke 43 (50)
Cris and Homely 33 (35)
SWE and Dallas 14
exhausted 1 (6)
invalid 2

I have the same totals for our two tickets in the first round, but I have 49-35 as of PR. I also have SWE with 13. I'm curious if you're counting Pingvin as 1 of the 2 invalid voters; I would think he wouldn't count as a vote at all in this case.

[Adam Griffin]

I'm sorry to hear this. Thank you for being a steadfast symbol in the game for all of these years.