Reaching consensus under a deadline

Group decisions are often complicated by a deadline. For example, in committee hiring the deadline might be next start of budget, or beginning semester. It may that if no candidate is supported strong majority, default to hire one - an option cost dearly. As result, members prefer agree on reasonable, not necessarily best, candidate, avoid unfilled positions. In this paper we propose model for above scenario—Consensus Under Deadline (CUD)—based time-bounded iterative voting process. We provide convergence guarantees and analysis quality final decision. An extensive experimental study demonstrates more subtle features CUDs, e.g., difference between two simple types member behavior, lazy vs. proactive voters. Finally, user examines differences behavior rational bots real voters, concluding it best have play voters’ behalf.