What if they had a war and no one came?

donald at mich.com donald at mich.com
Sun Dec 1 22:11:02 PST 1996


Dear Methods list,

DEMOREP1 wrote:
>Example-
>2 AM
>1 MB
>2 BM
>
>With IRO, M is dropped so that B wins, 3 to 2.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Donald writes,
Dear DEMOREP1, I am willing to accept your Instant Run-off example for
debate but I have some conditions.

Condition One: These five voters are experienced in three election methods
- Plurality - Instant Run-off - Condorcet.

Condition Two: Before the election the voters are told which method is
going to be used to crunch the results - and only that method can be used
on the returns of that election.

Condition Three: There is to be three elections on one ballot - Plurality -
Instant Run-off - Condorcet - as follows:

    Plurality       |        Instant Run-off     |        Condorcet
   vote for one     |           1   2   3        |          1   2   3
       A []         |        A []  []  []        |       A []  []  []
       B []         |        B []  []  []        |       B []  []  []
       M []         |        M []  []  []        |       M []  []  []

I say the results of these three elections will be as follows:

    Plurality       |        Instant Run-off     |        Condorcet
       2 A          |            2 AM            |           2 A
       2 B          |            2 BM            |           2 B
       1 M          |            1 MB            |           1 M

The Instant Run-off results are the same as your example.
The results of the Condorcet election will be the same as the Plurality
election. The reason for this is because EXPERIENCED voters in a Condorcet
election will not make a second selection - because they know that the
second selections will be used to help some candidate other than the
candidate of their first choice.

There is a saying that goes: "What if they had a war and no one came?"

I say: What if they had a Condorcet election and no one made any rankings?

Both the war and Condorcet election would become a non event.

Followers of Condorcet should think about this - even if you can prove
Condorcet is ethical - and you can get it up and running - what success can
there be if the Condorcet elections end up in a sink-hole.

Donald,





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