[EM] The wonders of filters and delete keys

[Forest Simmons]

On Fri, 27 Dec 2002, Alex Small wrote:

<snip>

>
> Another point is that Approval is a very BAD idea for the primary.  Say
> that we're narrowing it down to 4 candidates.  The largest faction could
> all approve their favorite and the 3 Stooges.  The second stage would
> likely include those 4 candidates (although that's not guaranteed, since
> the other factions may have partially overlapping preferences), and the
> serious candidate would easily defeat Larry, Curly, and Moe.
>
> To sum up:
>
> A single-step election may be undesirable for nonpartisan races.
>
> The public must be persuaded that selecting only 2 candidates for the
> final round can lead to undesirable results (e.g. France's Presidential
> race).  Here's an issue where many IRV and Approval supporters can agree.
>
> A suitable elimination method must be chosen for the primary race.
> Plurality may be the simplest reasonable method, with a provision that if
> somebody wins a majority there is no second round.  Also, perhaps the
> number advancing could be left flexible, so that anybody getting more than
> N% of the vote goes to the next round (N% might plausibly be 20% or 25%).
>

Note that with a 50% Approval cutoff (and no other limitation on the
number of candidates surviving to the runoff) Approval wouldn't be such a
bad filter after all.  If Larry, Curly, and Moe can muster 50% Approval,
that means that more voters want them to be in the runoff than not.

The Approval filter can be interpreted thus: for each candidate a mark
means that you vote to have him in the finals, while a blank means that
you vote to keep him out of the finals.  In each case the desire of the
majority will be respected. [Each case is treated as a separate question
requiring a yea or nay (by default) vote.]

If there is only one candidate who receives majority consent for appearing
in the finals, then that candidate automatically wins the runoff.

If it is the majority will in every case that the candidate does not
survive to the finals, then more candidates will have to be recruited, or
(alternatively) the candidate that came the closest to being approved for
the finals will take the seat.

Forest

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