1. What is Concordamos?
Concordamos is a tool used to reveal the priorities and preferences of a given group, chosen from a list of available options. Concordamos adopts a voting methodology that favors consensus-driven decision making in democratic processes.
For that matter, the name “Concordamos” is meant to reflect the desire people have of finding something on which many can agree, of ending a discussion with a satisfying decision that will please everyone.
2. How does Concordamos’ voting process work?
Concordamos adopts the quadratic voting methodology, tested and verified in several countries, and covered by many international news stories.
The voting process is done completely online. When creating a poll, the user provides a list of options for the group to rank by priority. Then, whoever takes part in the poll receives a set number of votes, which they’ll use to express their preferences among the available options.
When voting, each person allocates the votes they have to whatever options they prefer. And, if they wish to vote more than once for the same option, there is a cost: voting twice requires two votes, and so on.
At the end of the vote, this method shows very clearly, among the options listed, what the group’s priorities are, balancing out majorities and minorities, their divergences and convergences. In other words, by the end of the process we find the priorities for what people collectively want.
3. Why can each person vote more than once for the same option?
In the end, this methodology enables us to balance the quantity and the intensity of a group’s wants. This is why it’s possible to vote more than once for the same option, though at a cost.
Let’s see a practical example: you have 100 votes to distribute, and you want to vote five times for the same given option. In order to do this, you would have to allocate not 5 votes (one vote each time), but 25 votes. Can you tell the difference? This is how we can balance out majorities and minorities, divergences and convergences, revealing what are the group’s most agreed-upon priorities.
4. Can I cast all my votes for a single option?
I mean, you can. This will emphasize whatever option you want the most but, seeing as there is a cost for voting more than once for the same thing, you’ll end up casting fewer total votes in the end.
Another practical example: you have 100 votes to distribute and want to cast them all for the same option. Seeing as there is an exponential cost to doing that, your 100 available votes will turn into 10 effective votes.
5. What if I want to vote for more than one option?
You’ll have different options for which to vote and several available votes (credits) to use. You just need to select whatever options you favor the most, casting more or fewer votes accordingly, and you’ll be able to see the cost for each allocation on the screen.
In practice, the more you distribute your available votes, the more effective votes you’ll cast. And you can do this by allocating your votes according to your preferences.
6. Can I vote against a given option?
It depends. The person creating the poll may choose to use this methodology or not. This method is recommended for decision-making processes in which you already know that the group will be split on the issue, generally when there are options which are loved by some and loathed by others.
Thus, allowing people to vote for or against a given option increases the visibility of what people prefer the most, and of what they reject the most.
7. How does Concordamos promote consensus building?
Concordamos eliminates the equivalency of “one person-one vote”. By allowing people to vote more than once for the same option, the math behind this method reduces the gap between what the majority and the minority prefer, generating results that are more agreeable to everyone.
8. Can I organize a poll for my group?
Yes. Concordamos is free and comes with the option for each group to create its own polls. We can help you understand the methodology, but the tool is intuitive. You just need to send the poll’s link to whoever you want to take part in it and, with few directions, the voting can begin.
9. What is the difference between public and private polls?
There are polls in which only authorized people can vote, such as in cases where you need to be a member or an associate of a given group. In these cases, only those who qualify can vote. These are called “private polls”.
Public polls, however, are simpler to use, and everyone is invited to participate. And, seeing as people don’t usually take part in random polls except when they have an actual stake in the outcome, open polls are more inclusive (but still representative of the group’s preferences).
10. What’s the difference between voting with and without a login?
We sometimes may wish to have some control over who takes part in a given poll. In this case, we can require each participant to register by logging into the platform. For every other case, the poll is open for any person with the associated link, which they can use to vote however they wish.
11. My question is not on this list!
If you have any other questions or wish to learn more about Concordamos, please contact us at [email protected].
