Diane Lopez

Mrs.Valle

Math- 1P

6 December 2022

How Math Might Swing the Election- The Voting Paradox

Natalie Hombson

08 October 2020

Summary:

In this presentation, the main topic is about how the elections are somehow

mathematically made to figure out the winner the societal votes on. Hombson gives out many

strategies on how this is figured through strategies such as the input and outputs plurality, borda

count, and instant runoff to select a winner to these close votings.

An example Hombson made to help us make a connection between math and voting is by

showing us the functions of a process on inputting the voters preference and rankings and

outputting the election results. A big example Hombson setup to help us observe how voting

was analyzed was giving us the option to pick and “idol” for the year; either Emmy Noether (was

a german mathematician and specialized the “ring theory”, Benjamin Banneker (an American

mathematician known for astronomy and maker of new inventions), Srinivasa Ramanujan (an

Indian mathematician known for seeing patterns no one could figure out), and lastly Sophie

Germain (that was a female whom taught algebra and geometry). All four of these options were

put out to the students in which each voted on. 12 voted Germain first, 7 voted Banneker, 5

Noether, and 3 Ramanujan in rankings. Hombson gave us 3 strategies to use during this. In the

strategy of plurality we easily see Germain is the winner due to her having the most votes
meanwhile analyzing this through the borda count, Banneker is the winner due to him having the

most ballot points awarded to each candidate. Lastly, the instant runoff was processed and

Noether is the winner, having Ramanujan and Banneker eliminated due to the lack of votes.

Lastly Hombson made an explicit point of the Arrow method, which through the

example, helped us learn that a voting system will never satisfy all three “good voting” systems

(of the plurality, borda count, and instant runoff) only one or two are picked through the

strategies used to manage the winner.

New vocabulary that Hombson introduced to me were the functions of the voting system;

the Plurality was the voting system which elects as winner the candidate who receives the largest

amount of voters, the Borda Count which takes an election with 4 candidates and makes ballot

points to each candidate depending on the amount of votes per point, and lastly the Instant

Runoff which knocked off all the candidates with the least number of first place votes; leaving

other candidates the possibility to move up on each reference order.

Reflection

In this presentation I was very informed with the information and strategies Hombson

was giving about voting. The presentation and slides were very organized and explanatory.

Hombson made good points and gave great examples to help teach us about the connections

between mathematics and voting. She did not take as much time yet she still managed her time,

she went at a normal pace; briefly explained the main points nicely!

Something I found interesting and/or important about this are the strategies I explained

previously and the resemblance Hombson found between voting and mathematics. I’m glad I

found out how this system works. An important piece of information Hombson gave was the
arrow method which she gave us the knowledge that a voting system will never satisfy all three

of the voting systems she explained.

Australian Academy of Science & Australian Government

7 December 2022

The Mathematics of Voting

6 April 2016

https://www.science.org.au/curious/space-time/mathematics-voting

This article explains how in other places, they make voters reelect until a certain

candidate gets more or about half the amount of all voters' votes. Through this many voters are

given more than one choice of candidates to vote to pick their preference. Although many people

might live in a certain place, it does not always mean that the votes will mostly always be more

than half votes for the candidate to win. The first election fills six Senate seats; the second

election fills the remaining six. (There are rare occasions when elections are held for all twelve

Senate seats.) Each election, the Territories choose two senators; the number of votes needed to

win is called a quota. When there are two senators up for election, one vote more than one-third

of the total votes is required. One vote more than one-seventh of the total votes is required to

meet the quota when six senators are up for election. One vote more than one-third of all votes is

required to reach the quota when twelve senators are up for election.

The example was given with more candidates; if 100 votes are cast, and the candidates

are Anna, Brett, Christine, and Daniel, the votes would be cast as follows: Anna 36, Brett 30,

Christine 23, and Daniel 11. As you can see, despite receiving the most votes (36), nearly twice

as many individuals chose not to support Anna (64). Since Daniel is less voted, he is dropped as

well as Christine. Since Daniel was dropped, his and Christine’s votes get distributed to Anna
and Brett. With this strategy of adding up as well as the distribution of votes, Brett is the

candidate with the most votes.