[EM] ranked preferences

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 01:06 PM 10/26/2006, Simmons, Forest wrote:
>How about having the voters rank the candidates with the option of 
>skipping numbers: the more numbers skipped the stronger the preference.

If the rank numbers are summed, what this creates is Range Voting 
with inverted values. Lowest sum wins. Presumably blank candidates, 
with no rank assigned, would be counted at the highest number (least 
preferred).

Would ranking equally be allowed? Forcing a preference expression -- 
by prohibiting overvotes -- is one of the distorting characteristics 
of standard plurality methods.