Condorcet(x( ))

[Mike Ossipoff]

About the use of x = .5 instead of 0:

True, if you rank 2 candidates together in last place, or if you
don't rank either of them, then you're voting against them in the maximum
way: You're voting everyone else over them. _That's_ the sense in which
you've indicated that you want a maximum count against them.

What you haven't done is indicate that you meant to rank each of them
over the other. As I said, it would be counting something that the voter
hasn't said. Harmless in, say Copeland, but not so harmless in a method,
like Condorcet, that counts votes-against.

Most assuredly there's something wrong with x = .5 in Condorcet for
last-ranked or unranked pairs of alterntaives: Condorcet would lose its
properties of getting rid of the lesser-of-2-evils problem, getting
rid of the need for defensive strategy, and protecting majority rule.


Mike


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