Approval and LO2E

[Blake Cretney]

I think it's worth pointing out that Approval's LO2E assurance
is rather different from the ranked methods'.  That is, in the
ranked methods, if there is a candidate ranked last on a majority
of ballots, that candidate will lose, and another candidate will
win.  In approval, the majority may void the election by doing
this.  Voiding the election could be there last choice, even
below the candidate they are trying to defeat, but approval
doesn't even ask how they feel about this.

When the election is voided, if a new election is held, the same
candidate, or a very similar one, could appear again.  If the
candidate's party has enough money to keep running candidates,
it may be able to outlive the other parties in repeated
elections.  To prevent this, some of the other voters will 
have to abandon their favorite for a compromise.  This seems
like government by the most stubborn, since the most stubborn
people will hold their ground through repeated elections until
other voters are forced to accept their candidate.

Demorep suggests that if the election is voided, the winner should
be chosen by officials who are already elected.  But they could
easily choose the majority worst candidate, or at least a
candidate who would be majority worst if presented to the public.

---
Blake



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