Who's last in the tally?

[Steve Eppley]

Donald D wrote:
>Steve wrote: 
>> By what logic is any candidate last in the tally when there
>> are more than two candidates remaining?
>
>Well Steve - it seem to me that whenever we have more than two
>candidates remaining we are bound to have one with the lowest
>number of votes.
>
>              For example: 40A  30B  20C  10D
>
>I would say that candidate D is the lowest with ten percent.

I knew you'd say that, and I knew you would again omit its 
justification.  Without the justification, your answer is useless.

Just as each candidate's strength can be measured by the number of
voters who ranked him/her best, which in your (as yet unjustified)
opinion is the proper way, there are other ways.  Someone could just 
as easily parrot your words for alternative ways to measure which is 
last:

  Well Donald - it seems to me that whenever we have more than two
  candidates remaining we are bound to have one with the worst 
  Condorcet score.

So let's have a more thoughtful answer, okay?  WHY is your 
alternative the proper way to measure who's last?
(Prediction: Donald won't attempt to answer this.)

---Steve     (Steve Eppley    seppley at alumni.caltech.edu)