Public versus Private Results in Voting Nov 2024 / Regional Comparison Poll
"A Sea Change in Opinion"
Total Respondents: 34 overall
Compared to 2023, it took much longer to break 30 responses.
2023 had 37 responses in about 2 days.
2024 had 34 responses over 4 days.
If the poll had the same duration as 2023, we would have received only about 25 responses.
Polling Results
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Most Ideal Policy Position - no Majority result
"All Votes Public" and "All public except Recalls" receive about 56% of the responses here - with "All Public" falling just short of a clear majority. A marked change from a year and a half ago.
--- Most Approved Policy Position - Super Majority result
"All Votes Public" received a supermajority 67.6% from those who would approve of that option, a clear and convincing majority of the responses.
--- Most Tolerated Policy Position -- Super Majority results
Other options that compromise on some private results did receive some support on the "Tolerate" option, but with a clear supermajority among the "Approve" option, it likely won't matter much as the region approves of stronger public results.
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Similar to 2023 - most of the "Public Results" responses were early - the "Private Results" responses were mostly received later.
The regional opinion on this topic has largely shifted and public results is strongly favored.
My guess would be a lack of obnoxious ties / runoffs / Senate tie-breakers, etc. in recent memory. We'll see what happens if those situations start happening again.
We had little quirks like that on the last poll too. I chalk it up to some people either not understanding the widening aspect of "Ideal" -> "Approve" -> "Tolerate" OR they just forgot to check one of the boxes. Either way it hasn't affected either poll substantively.
I was one of the 'All Votes Private' responses, and I stand by all of them except one. For the last question, I would Tolerate Referenda and Recalls be public, with everything else remaining private. The 'hurr durr ties are fun' shenanigans and oddball strategic voting doesn't happen with those nearly as much, so I could tolerate them being open if I had to.
I can't off-hand without some heavy research, but I do recall someone commenting in discord a few years back that they voted to make it a tie simply to see what happened when it got sent to the senate. Something along those lines... but I don't have a link to that comment, so that's just based on memory.
When private results had stronger support, there were a lot of ties and tie-breaking shenanigans going on at the time. Multiple elections in a row going to ties at the last minute, the Senate either re-opening the whole election or the Pres winner being a Senator who broke their own Senate tie in favor of themselves... just some really unusual stuff going on.
And private results literally ended all of that. Overnight. We haven't had those tie-breaking issues ever since.
But memories are short, we'll see how things go from here.
If we want to avoid most of those issues, I would highly suggest keeping runoffs private, but we'll see.
I can't off-hand without some heavy research, but I do recall someone commenting in discord a few years back that they voted to make it a tie simply to see what happened when it got sent to the senate. Something along those lines... but I don't have a link to that comment, so that's just based on memory.
Well we did have the Lloen vs Lime election. Decided by the Senate after a tied runoff. Also pretty controversial despite votes being hidden
I think this "strategic" voting issue is way overblown, and it's equally as likely someone decides to vote for the leader because they don't want a tie. And those kinds of people aren't welcome in this region anyway.
I like public voting because it's more content for the media, and the runoff is a very inefficient time when nobody knows who's winning. It's way better for a potential president with already a day less to govern to know the election is going their way.
I'm tired of the current compromise and I want to go full public!
Why do all or your public voting takes have to be hot? Clearly many of our community members do care, or else the change to the law never would have occurred to begin with.
Why do all or your public voting takes have to be hot? Clearly many of our community members do care, or else the change to the law never would have occurred to begin with.
I mean it feels like a hot take to say that this is a political simulator; that yes people sometimes throw wrenches into the works to see what will happen; that there are contingencies built into the law for those tossed wrenches; and that my "not caring" implies people's feelings about these scenarios are less important than the overall entrainment provided to our community by the political gameplay that's going on
I think this "strategic" voting issue is way overblown, and it's equally as likely someone decides to vote for the leader because they don't want a tie. And those kinds of people aren't welcome in this region anyway
I agree that public voting leads to knowing outcomes of presidential elections after a few hours, which is imo the opposite of exciting and interesting.
