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Mathematical Sciences
Colloquium
January 30, 2020
JR Howard 254
4:00-5:00
Speaker: Roger Nelsen
Topic:
Democracy Inaction: Why Our Elections Are Unfair.
American presidential primaries are examples of multicandidate elections in which plurality usually determines the winner. Is this the “best” way to decide who wins? While plurality is a common procedure, it has serious flaws. Are there alternative procedures that are in some sense more “fair?” How do we determine the “fairness” of an election procedure? With no more mathematics than arithmetic (to count votes), we will examine some alternate procedures and fairness criteria.
Visit the Past Colloquia page for a list of talks from recent semesters.