[EM] CC _does_ need sincerity.

MIKE OSSIPOFF nkklrp at hotmail.com
Sun Dec 24 15:59:23 PST 2000


It's just occurred to me that my Condorcet Criterion does need
to stipulate sincere & complete voting, not just complete voting.

If only complete voting were required in the premise, then voters
who are indifferent between the CW & some other candidate could
vote that candidate over the CW and the CW could lose, with any
method.

Instead of having to say "sincere & complete", I'm going to leave
complete voting as part of my definition of sincere voting, just as
in my initial sincere voting definition.

In fact, I now use my initial sincere voting definition, just as
I initially wrote it. I realize that it unfairly calls you insincere
for voting a false preference in a method that doesn't allow equal
ranking. But it also greatly simplifies the wording.

As I said, it's always possible to contrive an example in which
people don't sincerely rate any candidates equally, and so my criteria work 
fine with my simple initial definition of sincere voting.

Including complete voting, as it does, and not allowing any excuses
for false preferences, my sincere voting definition differs from what
we really mean by "sincerity", but it's simple & it works just as
well as a more the more elaborate definitions that are more in line
with the usual meaning of sincerity.

Actually, SFC & GSFC work perfectly well with "vote completely"
replacing "vote sincerely". But I'm going to leave "vote sincerely"
in those criteria too, for uniformity. My Condorcet Criterion, &
probably some other criteria too, needs sincerity, as I define it,
rather than just complete voting.

As Craig L. said, a really accurate definition of sincerity would
have to not require complete voting, and would allow falsification
of a preference when that's the only way to vote some other sincere
preference. (As when you rate X & Y equal and want to vote both over
Z, but the method doesn't allow equal ranking). As I said, I'm
keeping my simple initial sincere voting definition, which requires
complete voting.

So my definitions of sincere voting & the criteria at the
electionmethods website don't have to be changed after all.

Mike Ossipoff


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