[EM] I stand corrected - thank God for little favors

[Donald E Davison]

Dear Blake Cretney,

     I stand corrected. And, I wish to thank you for pointing out this
needed correction. You have been most helpful.
     I am more than willing to embrace this corrected defination of
Approval Voting(AV).
     One question: Does the definaion also apply to Borda Count??

     This, new to me, defination of AV makes it a much poorer method than I
had believed it to be. I already had it rated last, I suppose I could lower
it a few more pegs.
     This defination can be used to discredit AV more than it is already
discredited. Suppose the following example:

           35 A         30 B         2 CB
           25 AB         8 BC
          ------       ------       -----
           60           38           2

     Candidate A is the majority winner of the first choices, but candidate
B wins the election according to the method of Approval Voting. This turn
of events will fly like a lead balloon with the public.
     Now I know you keep saying, "There is no count of the first choices",
but there are ways to get that information. If it cannot be extracted from
the election data, then it can be gotten from an exit poll.
     It is understandable that the AV people would not want that
information available to the public. An election method like AV needs to
keep the public in the dark.

     Anyway, my current rankings of the single winner methods are as follows:

     On a scale of one to ten - one being the best.

        1. Choice Run-Off(aka Alternative Vote)
        2. Run-Off without Elimination(RWE)
        3. Salva Count
        4. Salva Voting
        5. Condorcet
        6.
        7.
        8.
        9. Borda Count
       10. Approval Voting(AV)

     I put Borda Count down lower, in the event it also has the same
defination of first count choices as AV.

    You say that your Resource site is objective. If so, then you should
include the methods Salva Voting, Salva Count, and Run-Off without
Elimination. These three methods are valid methods and any one of them is
far superior to Approval Voting, which you do list.
     The people who like Approval or Borda or Condorcet should also like
the higher three because those three also allow the compromise candidate a
chance to win.
     People need to look at AV and realize that it is merely a primitive
method for electing the compromise candidate - there are better methods.

Thank you again,
Donald

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 T H E   C O D E   O F   H O N O R   F O R   R E F O R M   A C T I V I S T S

     Any group of reform activists that are thinking about a petition drive
to place a proposal on the ballot are to present their proposal beforehand
to all other reform activists that they know of. The time for debate and
negative comments is before the petition stage. Once the group makes its
final proposal and enters the petition stage, the debates and negative
comments by all reform activists is to cease.
    At this time each activist is to make an honest evaluation. If the
initiative will improve government then each activist is to find it in his
heart to support the initiative, even if it is not exactly what the
activist would like.

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   |                         Q U O T A T I O N                         |
   |  "Democracy is a beautiful thing,                                 |
   |       except that part about letting just any old yokel vote."    |
   |                            - Age 10                               |
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