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The Institute is named after Jean-Charles de Borda, and hence the well-known voting procedure, the Borda Count BC; but Jean-Charles actually invented what is now called the Modified Borda Count, MBC - the difference is subtle:
In a vote on n options, the voter may cast m preferences; and, of course, m < n.
In a BC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (n, n-1 ... 1) {or (n-1, n-2 ... 0)} whereas,
in an MBC, points are awarded to (1st, 2nd ... last) preferences cast according to the rule (m, m-1 ... 1).
The difference can be huge, especially when the topic is controversial: the BC benefits those who cast only a 1st preference; the MBC encourages the consensual, those who submit not only a 1st preference but also their 2nd (and subsequent) compromise option(s). And if (nearly) every voter states their compromise option(s), an MBC can identify the collective compromise.
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DECISION-MAKER
Inclusive voting app
https://debordavote.com
THE APP TO BEAT ALL APPS, APPSOLUTELY!
(The latest in a long-line of electronic voting for decision-making; our first was in 1991.)
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FINANCES
The Institute was estabished in 1997 with a cash grant of £3,000 from the Joseph Rowntree Charitabe Trust, and has received the occasional sum from Northern Ireland's Community Relations Council and others. Today it relies on voluntary donations and the voluntary work of its board, while most running expenses are paid by the director.
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A BLOG
"De Borda abroad." From Belfast to Beijing and beyond... and back. Starting in Vienna with the Sept 2017 TEDx talk, I give lectures in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tehran, Beijing, Tianjin, Xuzhou, Hong Kong and Taiwan... but not in Pyongyang. Then back via Mongolia (where I had been an election observer in June 2017) and Moscow (where I'd worked in the '80s).
I have my little fold-up Brompton with me - surely the best way of exploring any new city! So I prefer to go by train, boat or bus, and then cycle wherever in each new venue; and all with just one plastic water bottle... or that was the intention!
In Sept 2019, I set off again, to promote the book of the journey. After the ninth book launch in Taipei University, I went to stay with friends in a little village in Gansu for the Chinese New Year. The rat. Then came the virus, lockdown... and I was stuck.
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The Hospital for Incurable Protestants The Mémoire of a Collapsed Catholic This is the story of a pacifist in a conflict zone, in Northern Ireland and the Balkans. Only in e-format, but only £5.15. Available from Amazon. |
The director alongside the statue of Jean-Charles de Borda, capitaine et savant, in l’École Navale in Brest, 24.9.2010. Photo by Gwenaelle Bichelot.
Here's the YouTube, the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).
Friday, January 27, 2012 Both the British and the Scottish Governments have published papers on the proposed referendum. Both want either one and/or two majority votes. Neither talk about preference voting. So we have responded: this one is to Edinburgh, and here's the London one.
(See also 2014-12, 2013-15, 2012-10 and 2011-1.)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Defining Democracy was launched in the House of Lords on Tues. 31st January 2012 by Lord Paddy Ashdown, Lord Mike Boyce, Prof. Elizabeth Meehan and Tommy Sands. The book is now on-line at
http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-642-20904-8#section=997930&page=1&locus=25
"An extraordinary and quite remarkable conucopia indexof available [voting] systems." Paddy Ashdown.
(See also 2012-14/4/3.)
Monday, October 17, 2011 Thursday, August 25, 2011 Monday, June 20, 2011 I presented a paper to the EPSU conference in Dublin on why the matrix vote is so important, and here it is. It includes a modification to the ideas published in Voting Matters No 29, and this improvement is in this brief extract.
(See also 2012-7 and 2011-5.)
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Iraqi parliament took 249 days of embattled negotiations to form a government; a world record (which has now been captured by the Belgians). With a matrix vote, it could have all been done in a forenoon. The Matrix Vote: Electing an all-party Coalition Cabinet is published in Voting Matters, No 29, and is available here.
(See also 2012-7 and 2011-6.)
Friday, April 29, 2011 'Do you want David Cameron's first preference or do you want to change to his second preference?' {By his dictat, his (and our) other preferences are not up for discussion.} The FPP versus AV debate has become very acrimonious. Of course it has. (And here's why.)
Thursday, March 17, 2011 The de Borda Institute was accreditied to observe the General Election, and here is the report.
Friday, February 4, 2011 Saturday, January 15, 2011 The Next Scottish Referendum has just been published in Scottish Affairs, (No. 73, autumn 2010).
(See also 2014-12, 2013-15 and 2012-13/1.)
