[EM] Candidate Withdrawal suggested by Tom Ruen

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

>IRV winner (by plurality): Bush!
>   Now Nader supporters cry, "Hey, look! We [liberals] collectively have 
>the
>majority of the vote - Gore can still win! I thought our votes will be
>transferred to Gore and then we can still pick a winner!"
>   Bush says, "Sorry folks, too late!

Yes, sorry folks, it's too late, once IRV has been enacted.
Tom Ruen's scenario will of course happen more often than any of
us would like. Too often to call IRV a solution to the lesser-of-2-evils
problem or the spoiler problem.

Gore is a 3rd place loser - he can't
>have your votes now."
>   Then nice Nader, who knows he can't win says, "Oh, sure Gore can have my
>votes. I withdraw from the election and now Gore's second rank ballots are
>available to him!"
>   Bush demands, "Oh no you don't! The rules of IRV are final. Gore was
>eliminated. Votes can't be transferred backwards!"
>   Nader says, "Sure they can - I promised my supporters. Gore was
>eliminated because of my supporters, not yours."
>   Bush reacts with surprise, "Did he say 'Up yours?'"
>   Nader says, "The man's delusional! I'm outta here - get those votes
>recounted pronto!"
>   Hundreds of lawyers jump from behind the curtains, chiming in unison,
>"Here we come to save the day..."
>   Well, you can imagine the courts will not be happy to decide this one 
>for us!
>   So let's decide now before anything like this really happens!
>
>   Questions about IRV election process:
>1. Will a candidate be allowed to withdraw from the election after the
>"counting" is completed and the "winner" known?

No. The IRVies have always rejected the candidate withdrawal option.

>2. Is IRV elimination final and irreversible, or if something changes (like
>allowing #1), can a candidate demand a "recount" of the IRV process, hoping
>for a raise in his or her standing?

The IRVies refuse to consider allowing that option. They say that
it would take control away from the voters and give it to the
candidates, who could, in effect, change their voters' rankigs.
Nonsense. Candidate withdrawal doesn't violate the voter's wishes.
If you're one of those Nader voters, you'd rather elect Gore than
Bush, and you'd want Nader to withdraw so that your vote can actually
do something, so that you can be counted as part of the majority
against Bush. But just try to explain that to an IRVie.

I would like discussion about the fairness of these questions in theory
>and the practicality of applying them in real elections.

Good luck getting the IRVies to reconsider. They seem determined
to impose all of IRV's worst properties on the voting public, and
will tell you that the pupose of the IRV mailing list is promotion,
not finding our if what they're promoting is any good.

>   Have these questions been asked before?

Oh yes, several times. The first I heard of was Tom Round, of
Australia, around 1994 or 1995. Then Steve Eppley, more recently.

>   If so, what were the answers?

As always, the IRVies refuse to consider any mitigation of their
ill-conceived voting system.

Mike Ossipoff

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