[EM] Range Voting strategy

[Juho]

On Nov 13, 2006, at 20:13 , Warren Smith wrote:

>> Juho Laatu:
> I think Range Voting is quite ok for opinion polls and corresponding
> fully non-contentious elections (e.g. www.imdb.com), but as soon as
> there is an element of competition Approval style voting is the
> likely outcome.
>
>
> --the exit poll we made of the 2004 US Presidential election, showed
> only about 20% of voters going with approval-style range votes.
>
> Clay Shentrup just made another exit poll for the 2006 TX governor  
> election,
> http://rangevoting.org/Beaumont.html
> and the approval-style votes received were even rarer.
>
> So Juho Laatu is massively wrong based on this evidence.

My words might be slightly pessimistic but in general I think that  
trend is true.

> His defense will doubtless be, no matter how many thousands of exits
> polls and pollees we do, that any exit poll is not the real thing,  
> i.e.
> does not actually affect the election,

More or less correct. A high number of polls that would lead to  
something, e.g. to propaganda wars in the media, but still keep  
people sincere might provide some evidence.

You used the same word "poll" that I used. People obviously 1) didn't  
have any major reason to try to force the results in any direction  
and 2) probably were not told and did not understand the strategic  
possibilities of Range Voting. People may also typically want to  
answer sincerely in opinion polls.

> and therefore, magically, if we suddenly made
> it real, everybody's behavior would massively change.

No magic changes expected. I'd however expect e.g. some groupings to  
give a hint to their supporters on how to vote. Proposing a "strong  
vote" sounds most reasonable.

>
> Of course, I have no way to refute that until or unless range  
> voting is
> actually adopted.

Correct. We may both hide behind theories until the days when Range  
will be used widely.

>   However, these exit poll results are extremely  clear, large,
> and undebatable as such.

Correct. But what do they prove. Maybe not that in competitive  
elections all voters/groups would refrain from strategic voting.

Juho Laatu

>
> Warren D Smith
> http://rangevoting.org   <-- add your endorsement
>
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