Block voting — the smallest possible minority sweep (5 voters)¶

Generated from mmp_sweep_floor.yaml — do not edit by hand. Regenerate: python STARVote_LH_tabulation_engine/tools_adam/scripts/build_yaml_pages.py.

Method: plurality · 3 seats · Expected winners: Nora, Omar, Priya

Official tie-break (lot) order: Nora > Omar > Priya > Quinn > Rosa > Theo — consulted only if every deterministic tiebreaker stays tied (how the ladder works).

Scenario¶

The floor case: the fewest ballots in which a minority can win every seat under block voting. Five voters, three seats.

Two voters mark the full slate — Nora, Omar, Priya. The other three each mark one name, and a different one: Quinn, Rosa, Theo. Every slate candidate finishes on 2, every lone candidate on 1, and the slate takes all three seats on 40% of the voters.

Five is the minimum. With four voters the slate bloc would need 2 of 4 to out-poll each rival, which is half the electorate, not a minority; three dissenters voting three different ways is the smallest opposition that is both larger than the slate and unable to beat it anywhere.

Two things this case is NOT. It is not an argument that block voting usually does this — it shows the shape of the failure at its smallest, the way a two-candidate example shows vote splitting. And it is not about bullet voting being a mistake: the three dissenters have no better move available. Each has three marks and one candidate they like; spending the spare marks on someone they don't want is how a voter defeats themselves. The corner they are in is the method's, not theirs.

The full-size version of the same mechanism, with two organised parties and a runoff: mmp_minority_sweep.yaml.

Ballots¶

Row 1 = candidate names; each later row is one voter's 0–5 scores (a N × prefix = N identical ballots).

Nora,Omar,Priya,Quinn,Rosa,Theo
1,1,1,0,0,0   # slate voter — all three marks on the slate
1,1,1,0,0,0   # slate voter
0,0,0,1,0,0   # dissenter — one mark, for Quinn
0,0,0,0,1,0   # dissenter — one mark, for Rosa
0,0,0,0,0,1   # dissenter — one mark, for Theo

What the engine says¶

Full report from the _tabulated mirror (regenerated on every run; every analysis forced on):

--- Multi-winner Plurality — 3 winners ---
 Tabulating 5 ballots (mixed votes/voter).

Votes (most votes fill the seats):
   Nora      2  <- Elected
   Omar      2  <- Elected
   Priya     2  <- Elected
   Quinn     1
   Rosa      1
   Theo      1

Winners — Multi-winner Plurality, 3 seats:
   1. Nora   (2 votes)
   2. Omar   (2 votes)
   3. Priya   (2 votes)

Run it yourself:

python STARVote_LH_tabulation_engine/starvote_larry_hastings.py method_comparisons/multi_member_plurality/cases/mmp_sweep_floor.yaml

Block voting — the smallest possible minority sweep (5 voters)¶

Scenario¶

Ballots¶

What the engine says¶

See also¶