Australian experience with MPV (singlewinner STV)

[Steve Eppley]

I've been claiming that one of the key differences between MPV and
Condorcet is that MPV still has a significant spoiler dilemma which
will deter good candidates from competing, while Condorcet would
remove the main force which keeps the two "big tent" parties from
splintering over ideological differences. 

According to our Australian colleagues, empirical data there show
that MPV usually elects candidates who would beat all the others
pairwise, and there is some evidence that voters in Australia by and
large vote their sincere preferences when they rank the candidates. 

I'd appreciate more info if it's available.  I'd like to know what
percentage of the first choices go to the top two candidates in each
district (an average, and maybe the standard deviation).  Is there
some place online I can look that up?  I'd also like to know how and
why parties nominate only one candidate per office, if that's the
normal practice. 

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