Election Calculator/Generator

[Grand Angland]

Hey all,

I was just wondering if anybody was aware of an election calculator/generator or could give me any idea on how to build one?

I'd need one that can cater for a FPTP electoral system. I'd like it to be able to account for opinion polls and in-built seat preferences (such as demographic, historical, policy implications, incumbency bias etc). Ideally it would also be able to give me a seat-by-seat breakdown and majorities from each seat but that that is more of a nice to have. I did see one from a thread about 12 years ago that looked perfect but alas is no longer available.

Could anybody please help?

[Unibot III]

Hmm, so what I did last year to do this for a Unibot roleplay was create a Google Spreadsheet that would generate results like this.

Once I established what Unibot’s parties were and what they stood for, I went district by district and quantified how popular each party was in each district versus the overall national popular vote (e.g., 500%, -30%) based on established factors about each district (e.g., their economics, industries.)

A randomized national vote share would then get squeezed through a set of those district-by-district numbers and I would reallocate the surplus of each vote proportionally so the vote shares add up to 100% in each riding. That gave me a quasi-realistic FPTP electoral returns.

Essentially it’s a proportional swing projection, like something you’d use in a RL election, but with fictitious regional variance and random national numbers.

If you’re interested I can make a copy of my simulator sheet public for download, so others can just download and edit the sheet to fit their country.

[Sedgistan]

For gameplay or roleplay purposes?

[Grand Angland]

Hmm, so what I did last year to do this for a Unibot roleplay was create a Google Spreadsheet that would generate results like this.

Once I established what Unibot’s parties were and what they stood for, I went district by district and quantified how popular each party was in each district versus the overall national popular vote (e.g., 500%, -30%) based on established factors about each district (e.g., their economics, industries.)

A randomized national vote share would then get squeezed through a set of those district-by-district numbers and I would reallocate the surplus of each vote proportionally so the vote shares add up to 100% in each riding. That gave me a quasi-realistic FPTP electoral returns.

Essentially it’s a proportional swing projection, like something you’d use in a RL election, but with fictitious regional variance and random national numbers.

If you’re interested I can make a copy of my simulator sheet public for download, so others can just download and edit the sheet to fit their country.

That sounds like a good solid model - I would appreciate it if you would consider sharing such a sheet.

[Grand Angland]

For gameplay or roleplay purposes?

Primarily roleplay I would say - looking to develop a bit more of my NSWiki and to do a bit more forum work on here.

[Platypi United]

cool

[Sedgistan]

For gameplay or roleplay purposes?

Primarily roleplay I would say - looking to develop a bit more of my NSWiki and to do a bit more forum work on here.

Then why did you post this in the Gameplay forum, which clearly is not a roleplay forum? Thread moved.

[Nationalist Northumbria]

I can help.

[Meadowfields]

That would be extremely hard to do, I know tons of calculators for proportional representation, but alas, I don't know one for first-past-the-post.

[Grand Angland]

Then why did you post this in the Gameplay forum, which clearly is not a roleplay forum? Thread moved.

Well because firstly I do intend to use it for a bit of both and secondly, I see roleplay as part of gameplay surely? To involve yourself in roleplay is part of playing the game of Nationstates?

I can help.

It'd be great if you could please.

[Grand Angland]

That would be extremely hard to do, I know tons of calculators for proportional representation, but alas, I don't know one for first-past-the-post.

Yeah it seems so, hence why I'm excited to see the proposals offered Something I've wanted to do for a while, I wonder if NS will ever add a public approval/opinion poll feature to the game.

[Unibot III]

Hmm, so what I did last year to do this for a Unibot roleplay was create a Google Spreadsheet that would generate results like this.

Once I established what Unibot’s parties were and what they stood for, I went district by district and quantified how popular each party was in each district versus the overall national popular vote (e.g., 500%, -30%) based on established factors about each district (e.g., their economics, industries.)

A randomized national vote share would then get squeezed through a set of those district-by-district numbers and I would reallocate the surplus of each vote proportionally so the vote shares add up to 100% in each riding. That gave me a quasi-realistic FPTP electoral returns.

Essentially it’s a proportional swing projection, like something you’d use in a RL election, but with fictitious regional variance and random national numbers.

If you’re interested I can make a copy of my simulator sheet public for download, so others can just download and edit the sheet to fit their country.

That sounds like a good solid model - I would appreciate it if you would consider sharing such a sheet.

Oops, sorry for leaving you hanging. I will get around to sharing this. I have to duplicate the spreadsheet and make some notes so the spreadsheet is comprehensible.

[Grand Angland]

That sounds like a good solid model - I would appreciate it if you would consider sharing such a sheet.

Oops, sorry for leaving you hanging. I will get around to sharing this. I have to duplicate the spreadsheet and make some notes so the spreadsheet is comprehensible.

No worries at all - I can only thank you again, I do really appreciate it

[The Furi Isles]

I’ve made various election simulators using spreadsheets; I’d be happy to share info and insights with you.

[Teletubieland]

Easiest option would be to pick a country that uses FPTP and has a similar number of parties, take the results for a given election then just decide that one real life party equals one of your parties.

[The Cannaland Islands]

I’ve made various election simulators using spreadsheets; I’d be happy to share info and insights with you.

Please do

[Grand Angland]

Bump.

[Sauros]

Oops, sorry for leaving you hanging. I will get around to sharing this. I have to duplicate the spreadsheet and make some notes so the spreadsheet is comprehensible.

Please do. Just found this thread and a generator like this could be incredibly helpful.

[Unibot III]

Oops, sorry for leaving you hanging. I will get around to sharing this. I have to duplicate the spreadsheet and make some notes so the spreadsheet is comprehensible.

Please do. Just found this thread and a generator like this could be incredibly helpful.

So I realized my spreadsheet wouldn’t be very helpful for others, so I redesigned and its almost ready to make public. It took way longer than it should have, but I’ve been busy with work. Now that I know there is interest in it, I’ll get around to it.

(Also feel free to nag me to do it if I forget.)

[Bigpipstan]

(Also feel free to nag me to do it if I forget.)

It's been a while, did you made it public?

[Sauros]

Please do. Just found this thread and a generator like this could be incredibly helpful.

So I realized my spreadsheet wouldn’t be very helpful for others, so I redesigned and its almost ready to make public. It took way longer than it should have, but I’ve been busy with work. Now that I know there is interest in it, I’ll get around to it.

(Also feel free to nag me to do it if I forget.)

Here's me nagging.

[The Maidas]

Tagging this thread as I think it would be helpful.

[The Federal Republic of Paramore]

Tagging this thread as I think it would be helpful.

[The Galactic Supremacy]

I'll come back here once I've completed my applied Python course. Now that you've brought it up, I could do with a few extra projects on my resume. An 'election simulator' sounds interesting. I'll be back in 3 months, and I am serious about doing so.

Just thinking about it, I get excited. There are so many variables one could vary in an election, and some element of randomness can be built into the program.

[Unibot III]

So I realized my spreadsheet wouldn’t be very helpful for others, so I redesigned and its almost ready to make public. It took way longer than it should have, but I’ve been busy with work. Now that I know there is interest in it, I’ll get around to it.

(Also feel free to nag me to do it if I forget.)

Here's me nagging.

FAIR ENOUGH!!!



I have time off work with the holidays. TIME TO SPREADSHEET, UNIBOT. SPREADSHEET.