'Bring On The Night'
A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
An abstain means you are not there. It is no vote. Why would you abstain instead of voting "no"?
And if the choice is between 10 and 65, and there is no majority because the abstains count, and we can't talk about it again for 6 months and we already voted that there has to be a minimum number, we are deadlocked.
But, I digress a bit.
At this point, I don't think we can deal with the whole ballot. We can only deal with this one question.
But if we're using "majority" to mean "50%+1" then the abstentions have to count, don't they?
Not if you define it as 50% +1 of those who have an opinion. Which, again, is how Congress & UN work.
Oy... We really should have defined our terms better.
Jess that's what I was thinking.
I can understand using 50%+1 when we only have 2 Issues because that's how it will add up.
But if there are more than 2 Issues OR if we include abstaining votes then we have to use the most number of votes because there's no way there can be 50%+1.
Why would you abstain instead of voting "no"?
You might if abstains count towards the minimum voter turnout. You might think an issue is important enough to be decided, even though you, yourself, can't decide. This is another reason why it makes no sense (to me) for abstains to count towards the number needed for a majority.
If abstentions aren't counted as votes, then why are they even on the ballot?
Reread my first two sentences above, Jess.
If abstentions aren't counted as votes, then why are they even on the ballot?
MVT.
So we have many abstaining issues...
Does an abstain count toward a minimum number of voters? My gut says no. Abstaining to me ( and dictionary .com) means 1. To refrain from something by one's own choice: abstain from traditional political rhetoric. See Synonyms at refrain1. 2. To refrain from voting: Forty senators voted in favor of the bill, 45 voted against it, and 15 abstained.
Maybe we need to make an option of:
"Thinks the item needs further discussion" or "Thinks item should be decided, but doesn't like the options?
Does abstain count toward a majority? Also, I think no. Becuase abstaining is not voting.
And most importantly, we have to agree on what abstain means.
I think abstaining was only on the ballot as a mistake. I think it was included becuase there were multiple issues and some people might not care for all of them.