Regarding polls where you can select your favorite topic… I think the “will of the people” can be better determined by letting respondents vote for more than one item. Of course this takes more sophisticated information gathering than a simple set of “radio” buttons (geek talk for one of N selection device.) Different weights (values) could be assigned to the respondents prioritized choices, e.g. 3 points to your first choice 2 to your second, and one to your third. It is easy to see that if a lot of folks had the same second choice that item might easily outscore anyones first choice and covering that higher scoring item would please more people than covering anyones first choice.
This might seem complex the way I am attempting to describe it but in use is super simple. Consider a beauty contest and you can cast 3 votes for your favorite, 2 for second best and 1 vote for your third choice. Enough folks could vote the same contestant as #2 to give that contestant the most votes overall even though that contestant was no ones first choice.
Just a thought on making the voting system a little more sensitive to capturing reality.
PatrickG
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Is it really more realistic to chose as number one, the entry that not a single person thought was best? Doesn't this lead to the bland middle ground solution.
Steve, I think not. Most folks would not select something bland and uninteresting for their second choice. Let us say for example that all the projects received about equal votes for first place but there was almost universal agreement on second choice. Why would picking any of the projets getting such a low number of first choice votes be serving/pleasing folks more than the second choice which everyone voted for.
Of course this is a hypothetical situation and it is unlikely that voting would go just as in my "loaded" example. I offer it to illustrate how more folks would get something they want. It would be more in line with more rigorous sampling techniques.
A friend of mine said, "why try to reach a concensus or make a compromise, in so doing no one gets what they really want, DO IT MY WAY and at least one of us is happy!" The current method is better than not having a poll but something along the lines of what I suggested would characterize us with more accuracy. People think more as our world exists, in shades of greay rather than pure black or white.
Happy Holidays to All,
PatrickG
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