[EM] Hitler-Stalin-Middle Example Again

[Lucien Saumur]

In an article, DEMOREP1 at aol.com writes:

>A middle voter may hate one extremist by "absolutely" minus 99.9 percent and
>hate the other extremist by minus 100 percent- a "relative" differance of 0.1
>percent. 
> 
>If the middle voter votes for either extremist as a second choice, then such
>extremist may get elected with a majority and claim he/she has a "mandate"
>(to go politically crazy).
> 
>If the middle voter does not vote for either, then one of the extremists may
>get elected with a plurality.
> 
>Since all middle voters will probably not be alike, then each of them may
>strategically ask what are the other middle voters doing ?
> 
>Should I vote for an dètremist or not ?
> 
>An example again (50 votes for majority)--
> 
>Hitler         Stalin            Middle
>  42              41                  16    First Choice votes
> 
>Does any voter dare vote for a second choice ?

          Why not? Your second choice does not affect the
election chances of your first choice. In the above
example, if every H and S supporters chose M as their
second choice, then M would beat H by 57 to 42 and S by 58
to 41. If every H and S supporter did not indicate a second
choice, then M would not win and H or S would win depending
on the second choices of the M supporters. Then H or S
would see their least preference elected.

__________________________________________
          aa447 at FreeNet.Carleton.CA
          http://www.igs.net/~lsaumur/