Yet Another Participatory Election Series...1796

[tpfkaw]

Your multipliers are not quite calibrated right; you're going to have Lincoln getting 2% of the vote in 1860 and then Bryan getting 85% in his elections.

[tpfkaw]

Use 3 multipliers, one for Bryan, another for Parker and Smith, and a third for Wilson, Cox, and Davis.

[tpfkaw]

To give myself a mild pat on the back, TBH, under the principle of KISS, I think the original formulas that I came up with make the most sense. (I slightly modified the definitions to make more sense). Multipliers are combined when appropriate; for example the Free Soil Party, and Frémont's Radical Democracy Party, would both have a multiplier of 1/12, since they are both anti-slavery parties and left-wing third parties. Keep in mind that simply having the multipliers also effects the vote totals (put a disclaimer in the poll question and list the multiplier next to each candidate), so they don't necessarily have to be huge.

N*1/4: Anti-slavery/pro-Reconstruction political parties/independents
N*1/3: Left-wing (defined, even if it doesn't favor leftist economics, as being clearly to the left of the mainstream party most popular in New England) third parties (were not among top two by adjusted vote total in previous election)/non-incumbent independents
N*1/1.5: Non-left-wing third parties/non-incumbent independents
N*1/1.5: Mainstream left-wing parties (defined as favoring some form of socialism, wealth redistribution incl. greenbacker/free silver policies, or welfare state expansion)

[tpfkaw]

Started it but didn't finish; TNF also used my multipliers for a series or two with fairly reasonable results. I might add a multiplier of 1/3 for Thomas Jefferson vs. a Federalist and 1/2 for other Democratic-Republicans facing a Federalist.