[EM] Truncation

[Forest Simmons]

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Dave Ketchum wrote in part:

> > [Adam wrote]
> > At first I didn't like this idea, but its grown on me.  The simplicity
> > to the voter of ABCD(E)F voting is worth it.  The voters who are
> > interested and involved enough to actually need six distinct levels of
> > approval are the same voters who will understand that the unmarked
> > candidate will get the E grade.
>
> [Dave responded]
> This illusion of apparent simplicity is not real:
>       As a student I can dream of A, and react to what I get - THIS I am
> used to.
>       In a poll I can grade a question, knowing the results may be
> averaged - this is similar.
>       As an involved voter I can get a headache from this opportunity.
> Easy enough to give my true preference an A; what do I do about what is
> left of Nader, Gore, Bush, Hagelin, Buchanan, etc., since I want them less
> than A, but want to do all I can to help the least of the evils (likely
> Bush or Gore) win over the rest.
>       As a voter who gets a headache from the apparent opportunity
> existing, what stops me from rounding up my friends and starting a riot?

The voter has an advantage over the teacher, namely the secret ballot.
When a student is on the borderline between B and C, I have to be prepared
(as a teacher) to justify my choice to him/her.  In the voting booth I can
flip a coin without having to justify my vote to anybody.

With six available levels, flipping a coin to decide borderline cases is
(in elections with many thousands of voters) statistically tantamount to
having hundreds of levels of choice.

Better to round your utility estimates than to round up your friends for a
riot!

However, if voter psychology is not up to accepting the statistical
argument, then we can always resort to the plus/minus options on the grade
ballot.  Even with that complication it is still much simpler and more
familiar (hence less confusing) and more versatile (allowing equality at
various levels) than the standard ranked preference ballot (if there is
such a thing).


Forest

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