Spoiler Susceptibility in Party Elections

An electoral spoiler is usually defined as a losing candidate whose removal would affect the outcome by changing the winner. So far spoiler effects have been analyzed primarily for single-winner electoral systems. We consider this subject in the context of party elections, where there is no longer a sharp distinction between winners and losers. Hence, we propose a more general definition, under which a party is a spoiler if their elimination causes any other party’s share in the outcome to decrease.

 

We characterize spoiler-proof electoral allocation rules for zero-sum voting methods. In particular, we prove that for seats-votes functions only identity is spoiler-proof. We also show that spoilers are ubiquitous under some of the most common electoral rules. However, their impact can vary depending on the rule. Hence, we introduce a measure of spoilership, which allows us to experimentally compare a number of multiwinner social choice rules according to their spoiler susceptibility. Since the probabilistic models used in COMSOC have been developed for non-party elections, we extend them to generate multi-district party elections.