Condorcet(x( ))

[Steve Eppley]

Mike O. argued that x should be zero in the p+xq pairwise tally since
the voting system shouldn't assume voter's intentions when the voter
ranks two candidates equally.  Does the voter want some weight to be
counted against the two candidates (x>0) or not (x=0)?

It's pretty clear that if two equally ranked candidates were ranked
*first* by the voter then the voter wouldn't want any weight counted
against them.

It also seems reasonable that if two candidates were both left
unranked by the voter then the voter would want the maximum weight
(x=0.5?  x=1.0?) counted against them both.

Would there be something wrong with a Condorcet that uses x=.5 for
two unranked candidates and for equally last-ranked candidates if
there's no truncation, and x=0 otherwise?  Besides the extra
complexity in the definition?

While I'm musing... what about using an x() which varies depending on
the pair's rank position and the number of rank positions on the
ballot?  So x() would start at 0 for the favorite twins and
grow smoothly to .5 (or 1?) for the most despised twins?

Maybe this is too small a concern to spend time on...

--Steve