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interregnum

This package provides electoral apportionment methods and it allows to build electoral systems based on multiple constituencies/districts.

Features:

• proportional, preferential and bi-proportional methods
• compensatory systems
• district based systems
• constraints definition system (for example: vote threshold)

Installation

interregnum is available on PyPI. It can be installed using pip:

pip install interregnum

Python $\ge 3.10$ is required.

Quickstart

Command line interface

:::{seealso} For details, read the {doc}CLI documentation <cli>. :::

The CLI app allows to calculate some data using an electoral system.

Let's create a sample electoral system: use the Highest Averages method using the D'Hondt divisor.

# freedonia.yaml
name: Freedonia - Local elections 1933
method: highest_averages
method_params:
    divisor_f: dhondt
seats: 3
candidates:
- name: Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly
  votes: 8950
- name: Sylvania for Louis Clahern
  votes: 5203

Now, let's calculate:

interregnum-cli calc freedonia.yaml results.json --results seats.tsv

The original YAML file has been saved to a JSON file named results.json, with the same information, plus a field results containing the allocated seats and additional information about what the method internally did (event log, random state, etc.):

{
    "resume_allocation": false,
    "initial_seats": "min_seats",
    "method": "highest_averages",
    "method_params": {
        "divisor_f": "dhondt"
    },
    "type": "district",
    "name": "Freedonia - Local elections 1933",
    "result": {
        "allocation": [
            {
                "name": {
                    "name": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly",
                    "alliance": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly"
                },
                "votes": 8950,
                "seats": 2
            },
            {
                "name": {
                    "name": "Sylvania for Louis Clahern",
                    "alliance": "Sylvania for Louis Clahern"
                },
                "votes": 5203,
                "seats": 1
            }
        ],
        "data": {
            "log": [
                {
                    "EVENT": "winner",
                    "target": {
                        "name": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly",
                        "alliance": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly"
                    },
                    "criterion": "best_quotient",
                    "quota": 8950
                },
                {
                    "EVENT": "winner",
                    "target": {
                        "name": "Sylvania for Louis Clahern",
                        "alliance": "Sylvania for Louis Clahern"
                    },
                    "criterion": "best_quotient",
                    "quota": 5203
                },
                {
                    "EVENT": "winner",
                    "target": {
                        "name": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly",
                        "alliance": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly"
                    },
                    "criterion": "best_quotient",
                    "quota": 4475
                }
            ],
            "max_quota": 8950,
            "min_quota": 4475,
            "remaining_seats": 0
        },
        "deterministic": true,
        "random_state": {}
    },
    "candidates": [
        {
            "name": "Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly",
            "votes": 8950,
            "groups": []
        },
        {
            "name": "Sylvania for Louis Clahern",
            "votes": 5203,
            "groups": []
        }
    ],
    "seats": 3
}

Additionally, we saved a tabular file seats.tsv including only the allocation result:

node    district        name    alliance        votes   seats   min_seats       max_seats       groups  meta
Freedonia - Local elections 1933                Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly  Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly  8950    2       0
Freedonia - Local elections 1933                Sylvania for Louis Clahern      Sylvania for Louis Clahern      5203    1       0

Python library

:::{seealso} For details, read the {doc}API documentation <modules/modules>. :::

We will calculate the same data using the HighestAveragesAllocator class:

from interregnum.methods.singlevote import HighestAveragesAllocator

# create a d'Hondt allocator
dhondt = HighestAveragesAllocator("dhondt")
# allocate 3 seats for given set of votes using the created allocator
result = dhondt(
    candidates=[("Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly", 8950),
                ("Sylvania for Louis Clahern", 5203)],
    seats=3
)

# content: result.allocation
[Candidate(name='Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly', votes=8950, seats=2),
 Candidate(name='Sylvania for Louis Clahern', votes=5203, seats=1)]

# content: result.data.log
[QuotaWinnerEvent(target='Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly', criterion='best_quotient', quota=Fraction(8950, 1)),
 QuotaWinnerEvent(target='Sylvania for Louis Clahern', criterion='best_quotient', quota=Fraction(5203, 1)),
 QuotaWinnerEvent(target='Freedonia for Rufus T. Firefly', criterion='best_quotient', quota=Fraction(4475, 1))]

Electoral systems based on districts

It is possible to create complex electoral systems whose districts can be expressed as a directed acyclic graph. A district can depend on another district's elements: tallied votes or results.

Changelog

0.4.0

• cli: export candidates, preferences or district seats
• cli: '-' is interpreted as stdin/stdout
• cli: added result filtering options to calculate subcommand
• added write method to PreferencesFile
• test with pypy3

0.3.0

• Use slots for dataclasses
• Fix __str__ for sparse and graphs
• Move preference types to methods
• Fix type-hint errors (mypy --strict)
• Fix urls for source and bug reports
• Fix belgian imperiali divisor iterator

0.2.0

• Command line: generate a dependency graph in Graphviz DOT format from an electoral system

0.1.0

• Initial public release