[EM] The Hippopotamus Logic

[donald at mich.com]

Dear List,

DEMOREP1 wrote:>
>If there was a yes/no vote on the acceptability of each candidate, the
>results might be (assuming that the second choices are "true")

>A 46 yes, 54 no- defeated
>B 100 yes, 0 no- survives
>C 34 yes, 66 no- defeated

Donald: I question what you are doing here. You have no right to use only
the first and second selections as yes/no votes. The third selections that
80 percent of the voters chose to make are also yes votes. The results
should be:
          A   80 yes  20 no
          B  100 yes   0 no
          C   80 yes  20 no


DEMOREP1 wrote:>
>A yes/no vote in Donald's third example would produce
>(assuming 2nd choices to be true)---
>40A      40
>2AB       2      2
>4AC       4              4
>20B             20
>30C                     30
>2CA       2              2
>2CB              2       2
          ---    ---     ---
>Totals   48A    24B     38C
>No majority acceptable candidate

Donald: You are using Approval Voting here - this suggests to me that
Approval Voting is not a valid election method - at times it will not come
up with a majority winner. I do not approve of Approval Voting.
     I would approve a yes/no vote on the first selection with the loser
being dropped. Using Steve's example:

        >46 ABC          A 46 yes  54 no
        >20 B            B 20 yes  80 no
        >34 CBA          C 34 yes  66 no
     Candidate B has the largest no vote and is dropped.

     Mike and Steve, the two "big-name Condorcet popularists on this EM
list", both claim to be champions of majority winner but they gloss over
the fact that eighty(80)percent of the voters in this example voted for
candidates other than candidate B. If candidate B is so great why did he
not receive more votes. I would say that candidate B is most likely an
adequate person to serve as a caretaker president - not a superstar.

Donald,