Differences of sincerity definitions

MIKE OSSIPOFF nkklrp at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 4 18:52:54 PST 2000



>Sorry in my rather hasty example, there are supposed to be 5 candidates,
>with the voters preferences being:
>
>A=B>C=D>E
>
>My question being, how can you (in a relatively simple fashion) allow a
>voter to vote like this?  What kind of instructions could you use, how 
>would
>you structure the ballot paper, what would determine a valid vote?
>

If voters write numbers next to candidates to indicate ranking, then,
as you suggested, the voter could write 1,1,2,2,3.

If it's a table ballot, with voter rows & rank columns, then the voter
can mark A & B in column 1, C & D in column 2, and E in column 3
(or not at all).

The only validity problem would be if someone voted the same candidate
at 2 rank positions. There's been discussion about that, but I don't
think there's been a clear answer. Maybe average the 2 rank positions
that that voter gave to that candidate, and give him that average
rank number. If it coincides with another candidate's rank number, then
it's an equal ranking. If it ends in ".5", then renumber the
rank numbers so that they're all integers, with the fractional one
inserted where it goes.

Mike Ossipoff



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