[EM] Student government - what voting system to recommend?

Chris Benham chrisjbenham at optusnet.com.au
Sun Apr 22 12:22:53 PDT 2007



Tim Hull wrote:

> Single-winner is tougher, but I think I'd use IRV or Plurality there 
> to avoid confusion concerning different single-winner and multi-winner 
> election systems. 

Plurality is terrible. I somewhat prefer IRV to Approval and Range. How 
many candidates normally or typically stand for the single-winner elections?
IRV tends to behave worse with many candidates.

> P.S. Here is why I don't like Condorcet - it allows weak or eccentric 
> centrists to win.
> Consider the following example:  a Republican, a Democrat, and a pro 
> wrestler are running for U.S. president
>
> Votes are as follows
>
> 48% - Democrat/Pro Wrestler/Republican
> 5% - Pro Wrestler/Democrat/Republican
> 47% - Republican/Pro Wrestler/Democrat
>
> The pro wrestler beats the Democrat, 52-48, and the Republican 53-47, 
> and thus wins. Under IRV, the Democrat would have won.


If the Democrat and Republican supporters really have a strong 
preference for the wrestler over their least preferred candidate, what 
is the problem?
If they don't, they have the option of preventing the wrestler from 
winning by truncating. But I agree that Later-no-Harm is nice.

Chris  Benham




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