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Main Authors: Casey, Matthew M., Elkind, Edith
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00811
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author Casey, Matthew M.
Elkind, Edith
author_facet Casey, Matthew M.
Elkind, Edith
contents The study of proportionality in multiwinner voting with approval ballots has received much attention in recent years. Typically, proportionality is captured by variants of the Justified Representation axiom, which say that cohesive groups of at least $\ell\cdot\frac{n}{k}$ voters (where $n$ is the total number of voters and $k$ is the desired number of winners) deserve $\ell$ representatives. The quantity $\frac{n}{k}$ is known as the Hare quota in the social choice literature. Another -- more demanding -- choice of quota is the Droop quota, defined as $\lfloor\frac{n}{k+1}\rfloor+1$. This quota is often used in multiwinner voting with ranked ballots: in algorithms such as Single Transferable Voting, and in proportionality axioms, such as Droop's Proportionality Criterion. A few authors have considered it in the context of approval ballots, but the existing analysis is far from comprehensive. The contribution of our work is a systematic study of JR-style axioms (and voting rules that satisfy them) defined using the Droop quota instead of the Hare quota. For each of the standard JR axioms (namely, JR, PJR, EJR, FPJR, FJR, PJR+ and EJR+), we identify a voting rule that satisfies the Droop version of this axiom. In some cases, it suffices to consider known rules (modifying the corresponding Hare proof, sometimes quite substantially), and in other cases it is necessary to modify the rules from prior work. Each axiom is more difficult to satisfy when defined using the Droop quota, so our results expand the frontier of satisfiable proportionality axioms. We complement our theoretical results with an experimental study, showing that for many probabilistic models of voter approvals, Droop JR/EJR+ are considerably more demanding than standard (Hare) JR/EJR+.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_00811
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Justified Representation: From Hare to Droop
Casey, Matthew M.
Elkind, Edith
Computer Science and Game Theory
The study of proportionality in multiwinner voting with approval ballots has received much attention in recent years. Typically, proportionality is captured by variants of the Justified Representation axiom, which say that cohesive groups of at least $\ell\cdot\frac{n}{k}$ voters (where $n$ is the total number of voters and $k$ is the desired number of winners) deserve $\ell$ representatives. The quantity $\frac{n}{k}$ is known as the Hare quota in the social choice literature. Another -- more demanding -- choice of quota is the Droop quota, defined as $\lfloor\frac{n}{k+1}\rfloor+1$. This quota is often used in multiwinner voting with ranked ballots: in algorithms such as Single Transferable Voting, and in proportionality axioms, such as Droop's Proportionality Criterion. A few authors have considered it in the context of approval ballots, but the existing analysis is far from comprehensive. The contribution of our work is a systematic study of JR-style axioms (and voting rules that satisfy them) defined using the Droop quota instead of the Hare quota. For each of the standard JR axioms (namely, JR, PJR, EJR, FPJR, FJR, PJR+ and EJR+), we identify a voting rule that satisfies the Droop version of this axiom. In some cases, it suffices to consider known rules (modifying the corresponding Hare proof, sometimes quite substantially), and in other cases it is necessary to modify the rules from prior work. Each axiom is more difficult to satisfy when defined using the Droop quota, so our results expand the frontier of satisfiable proportionality axioms. We complement our theoretical results with an experimental study, showing that for many probabilistic models of voter approvals, Droop JR/EJR+ are considerably more demanding than standard (Hare) JR/EJR+.
title Justified Representation: From Hare to Droop
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00811