[EM] Russ´s Better-Than-Expectaton derivation (was "no subject")

[Chris Benham]

Russ,
I  think what Mike means by "approve a candidate if you would rather 
have that candidate in office than hold the election" is

 "if your sincere rating of a candidate is greater than the sum of   
your ratings of all the candidates multiplied by what you perceive
as the individual candidates' odds of winning (on a scale of 0 to 1, 
with all the odds summing to 1); then approve that candidate".

Or to put it more simply, "based purely on your preferences among the 
candidates and your perception of the likely outcome of the
election if it is held (and not on any democratic scruples about the 
process),  if  you were given the choice between
(1) cancelling the election and simply appointing candidate x to fill 
the office; or
(2) going ahead with the normal Approval election;
and  you would  pick (1),  then approve x."

I hope that sheds some light.


Chris  Benham