Sunday, September 7, 2014

A Google Apps Sheet for STV Elections

I've been using Google apps like Sheets in my Kickstarter project, but one thing Sheets doesn't do is complex surveys. While you can link a survey to a sheet, the survey question types are pretty basic, and in particular it does not let you do a ranked survey (in other words, "here are N options, pick any number of them that you like and place them in order of preference.")

When I was on the EVE Online Council of Stellar Management, I became quite the election-systems nerd, because I was pushing hard for a reform of the election system. So just for fun, I decided to see if I could implement a Multiple-Choice Ballot in Google Apps.

What I ended up was a sheet with a bunch of embedded scripts that lets you:

  • Create a Multiple-Choice Ballot with optional additional questions (radios, dropdowns and fields) and voter validation.
  • Store the results in a sheet.
  • Export the results in the standard .blt ballot format used by many election systems.
  • And best of all, run the election using the Simple-STV and Wright-STV systems.
You can find the template sheet at http://stv.madoverlord.com/. Just make a copy of it in your own Google Drive and start playing with it.

Enjoy!