Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections

Michelle Blom; Andrew Conway; Peter J. Stuckey; Vanessa J. Teague

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1

Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections

Michelle Blom, Andrew Conway, Peter J. Stuckey, Vanessa J. Teague

Department of Data Science & AI

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the context of increasing automation of Australian electoral processes, and accusations of deliberate interference in elections in Europe and the USA, it is worthwhile understanding how little a change in the recorded ballots could change an election result. In this paper we construct manipulations of the ballots in order to change the overall balance of power in an Australian Federal Senate election – the upper house of Parliament. This gives, hopefully tight, over-estimations of the Margin of Victory (MOV) for the party or coalition winning the Senate. This is critical information for determining how well we can trust the reported results, and how much auditing should be applied to the election process to be certain that it reports the true result. The challenge arising in Australian Federal Senate elections is that they use a complicated Single Transferable Vote (STV) method for which it is intractable to compute the true MOV, hence we must rely on greedy methods to find small manipulations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings
Editors	Robert Krimmer, Melanie Volkamer, Bernhard Beckert, Ralf Küsters, Oksana Kulyk, David Duenas-Cid, Mikhel Solvak
Place of Publication	Cham Switzerland
Publisher	Springer
Pages	1-18
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Electronic)	9783030603472
ISBN (Print)	9783030603465
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1
Publication status	Published - 2020
Event	International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting 2020 - Bregenz, Austria Duration: 6 Oct 2020 → 9 Oct 2020 Conference number: 5th https://e-vote-id.org/e-vote-id-2020/

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Volume	12455
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting 2020
Abbreviated title	EVOTE 2020
Country/Territory	Austria
City	Bregenz
Period	6/10/20 → 9/10/20
Internet address	https://e-vote-id.org/e-vote-id-2020/

Keywords

Balance of power
Margin of Victory
Single Transferable Vote

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1

Cite this

Blom, M., Conway, A., Stuckey, P. J., & Teague, V. J. (2020). Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections. In R. Krimmer, M. Volkamer, B. Beckert, R. Küsters, O. Kulyk, D. Duenas-Cid, & M. Solvak (Eds.), 5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings (pp. 1-18). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; Vol. 12455). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1

Blom, Michelle ; Conway, Andrew ; Stuckey, Peter J. et al. / Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections. 5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings. editor / Robert Krimmer ; Melanie Volkamer ; Bernhard Beckert ; Ralf Küsters ; Oksana Kulyk ; David Duenas-Cid ; Mikhel Solvak. Cham Switzerland : Springer, 2020. pp. 1-18 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science ).

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abstract = "In the context of increasing automation of Australian electoral processes, and accusations of deliberate interference in elections in Europe and the USA, it is worthwhile understanding how little a change in the recorded ballots could change an election result. In this paper we construct manipulations of the ballots in order to change the overall balance of power in an Australian Federal Senate election – the upper house of Parliament. This gives, hopefully tight, over-estimations of the Margin of Victory (MOV) for the party or coalition winning the Senate. This is critical information for determining how well we can trust the reported results, and how much auditing should be applied to the election process to be certain that it reports the true result. The challenge arising in Australian Federal Senate elections is that they use a complicated Single Transferable Vote (STV) method for which it is intractable to compute the true MOV, hence we must rely on greedy methods to find small manipulations.",

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Blom, M, Conway, A, Stuckey, PJ & Teague, VJ 2020, Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections. in R Krimmer, M Volkamer, B Beckert, R Küsters, O Kulyk, D Duenas-Cid & M Solvak (eds), 5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science , vol. 12455, Springer, Cham Switzerland , pp. 1-18, International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting 2020, Bregenz, Austria, 6/10/20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1

Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections. / Blom, Michelle; Conway, Andrew; Stuckey, Peter J. et al.
5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings. ed. / Robert Krimmer; Melanie Volkamer; Bernhard Beckert; Ralf Küsters; Oksana Kulyk; David Duenas-Cid; Mikhel Solvak. Cham Switzerland : Springer, 2020. p. 1-18 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; Vol. 12455).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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AU - Teague, Vanessa J.

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PY - 2020

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N2 - In the context of increasing automation of Australian electoral processes, and accusations of deliberate interference in elections in Europe and the USA, it is worthwhile understanding how little a change in the recorded ballots could change an election result. In this paper we construct manipulations of the ballots in order to change the overall balance of power in an Australian Federal Senate election – the upper house of Parliament. This gives, hopefully tight, over-estimations of the Margin of Victory (MOV) for the party or coalition winning the Senate. This is critical information for determining how well we can trust the reported results, and how much auditing should be applied to the election process to be certain that it reports the true result. The challenge arising in Australian Federal Senate elections is that they use a complicated Single Transferable Vote (STV) method for which it is intractable to compute the true MOV, hence we must rely on greedy methods to find small manipulations.

AB - In the context of increasing automation of Australian electoral processes, and accusations of deliberate interference in elections in Europe and the USA, it is worthwhile understanding how little a change in the recorded ballots could change an election result. In this paper we construct manipulations of the ballots in order to change the overall balance of power in an Australian Federal Senate election – the upper house of Parliament. This gives, hopefully tight, over-estimations of the Margin of Victory (MOV) for the party or coalition winning the Senate. This is critical information for determining how well we can trust the reported results, and how much auditing should be applied to the election process to be certain that it reports the true result. The challenge arising in Australian Federal Senate elections is that they use a complicated Single Transferable Vote (STV) method for which it is intractable to compute the true MOV, hence we must rely on greedy methods to find small manipulations.

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A2 - Kulyk, Oksana

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A2 - Solvak, Mikhel

PB - Springer

CY - Cham Switzerland

T2 - International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting 2020

Y2 - 6 October 2020 through 9 October 2020

ER -

Blom M, Conway A, Stuckey PJ, Teague VJ. Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections. In Krimmer R, Volkamer M, Beckert B, Küsters R, Kulyk O, Duenas-Cid D, Solvak M, editors, 5th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2020 Bregenz, Austria, October 6–9, 2020 Proceedings. Cham Switzerland : Springer. 2020. p. 1-18. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science ). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_1

Shifting the balance-of-power in STV elections

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

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