Online Communities
When votes are held in large online communities, where it may never be the case that a majority of the members are present, the effect of quorum is different. Being absent from the vote no longer requires particular effort, but is the default case: voters are usually assumed to be absent unless they cast a vote. Online communities therefore tend to have quorums that are much less than a majority of the members.
In such votes, a non-monotonic aspect can be introduced: a voter can inadvertently swing a vote from failing to passing by voting no, if a majority has voted yes and that no vote is the one that causes quorum to be met. With no penalty for being absent, voters are faced with a strategic choice between voting no and not voting.
The Debian project has addressed this issue in its voting mechanisms with the idea of per-option quorum. A quorum is not set on the total number of votes, but on the number of votes a particular option (besides the status quo) must receive before it is considered. For example, in a yes/no vote, the quorum may say that at least 40 yes votes are required, along with yes having a majority of votes, for the vote to pass.
The political simulator NationStates and its fictional legislature, the World Assembly utilizes a 6% quorum of Regional Delegates to approve proposals.
Read more about this topic: Quorum
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