I'm trying not to sound rude but this is just an appalling conclusion. Yes, every vote should count for what it measures. No counts the people opposed to a proposal, yes counts the people accepting the proposal and abstain counts the people that have no opinion on the matter.
You don't sound rude at all. You're absolutely right but what you say applies only to poll questions that have only two mutually exclusive and all encompassing options that are present as vote options. In other words for a poll question like
should we declare war on Alexander on turn 39? with options of yes, no and abstain. It doesn't work for poll questions like
when should we declare war on Alexander? with options like next turn, turn 39, after we build a barracks in our capitol, abstain. These are the kinds of polls we have to prepare for. In the latter poll would we be bound to declare war on turn 39 if the result of the voting was 2/6/3/9? If I don't want to declare war at all how do I vote so that my vote is measured as a no?
So, if I'm reading your explination right. You are not really infavor of counting abstain, or not as such. More so infavor of eliminating abstain all together, or any other option which equates to a non-vote.
I am leaning that way for simplicity sake. If every vote is counted towards the majority then all we have to do is look at the poll result percentages to see if an option got 50% or more of the vote.
I don't think that abstain should be counted as long as the poll includes all possible options.
Difficult to list them all - how would we do that in
when should we? type polls. Also, the more options a poll has the greater the chance there will be no majority decision. But see below.
I think some energy is wasted trying to apply a particular meaning to "abstain". A simpler solution would be to consider two separate poll options:
- "None of the above" which would be counted and could prevent one of the other options from winning (whether the poll was majority or plurality based).
- "Observing, but not voting" which would not be counted and would simply be a way for people to show they were paying attention, but that they lacked a preference.
Whether either or both options would be included on a poll seems a question best left to the poll creator.
This is the best solution presented so far - but I would not make it optional. Even in polls with simple yes / no questions there can be reasons for voting
none of the above. Say the poll is private and you think it should be public (or vice-versa). Say the poll is put up during a holiday and given a one day duration so the pollster can slide something in quick before everyone gets a chance to vote. There is always the possibility that someone will object to a poll for some reason. Give that person the chance to vote against the poll - make the
none of the above option madatory.
I think we might want to consider an initiative that goes something like this:
No poll shall be binding if it does not include the following two options:
- None of the above (votecounted towards determination of poll winner)
- Abstain (vote not be counted towards determination of poll winner)
So, how many characters can there be in a poll option?
Anyone wanting to register the fact that they are paying attention but don't really care about the poll can just make a post in the poll saying Hey, I'm here but I don't really care about this so I'm not voting.
