[EM] Replacement Candidates? - Where are you hiding?

[Donald E Davison]

Greetings,

Ron Tannenwald wrote:
     To justify my choice of a voting procedure let me set forth some
criteria I feel are necessities.

    1.Majority Criteria  (i.e. if a candidate is the first choice of a
majority, that candidate wins)

    2.The winner must have the approval of a majority of voters.

    3.The method should be simple to explain,understand,and implement.

   With the understanding that no method is ideal,my preference would be
Bucklin voting with the proviso that should no candidate receive majority
approval the election is void and no present candidate can run in the new
election.

    Bucklin voting is certainly simple and has been used historically;
voters immediately saw that their lower choices might hurt their favorites
(a property common to most ranking systems without elimination, but not so
obvious) and so many voted bullets.The second part of my scheme is meant to
discourage strategic truncation of ballots.Voters do so now at their peril.

Respectfully,  Ronald Tannenwald
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Dear Ronald Tannenwald,

     Your three necessary criteria will be satisfied by Bucklin, but the
second part of your scheme will not discourage the voting of bullets.
     The voting public does not function with one mind. Many, if not all,
will try to "get away with something" by "takin' a chance" on making only
one choice.

     Your proviso that no present candidate can run in the follow up
election is harsh and unacceptable.
     Some on this list complain run-off eliminates candidates. Now you are
suggesting that all the candidates be eliminated in one step.
     The public wants to vote for their most preferred selection, they
should be free to do so. Besides, where are you going to find replacement
candidates? Qualified candidates are not that easy to come by.
     If you do find some replacement candidates, that are able and willing,
why were they not running in the first election?

     While Buckin is superior to Approval and Borda, it still has the same
flaw of the lower choices helping to defeat the first choice.
     Your proviso will not eliminate this flaw.
     Your proviso attempts to punish the public while it is the method that
is bad. Any method is bad that uses lower choices while the first choice is
still a contender.
     The public is willing to accept the policy of eliminating the lowest
candidate.

     Everybody should "Learn to Love Run-Off - it will Set You Free."

Regards,
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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