[EM] STV's rejection: it's "not a defect, it's a feature!"

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

>I like to liken the Approval/Everything else argument to that between
>Laissez Faire economists and everything else. If the market for votes was
>free and everybody had equal information and was supremely rational, then
>approval would be the laissez faire method of choice.

Everyone pretty much as access to the same polling results and
other estimates. Rational? Maybe not everyone will use the
mathematical strategy in Approval, just as they now don't
in FPTP.But Approval, compared to FPTP or IRV, avoids certain
problems that are problems whether voters are rational or not.
In fact the most unfortunate failures of FPTP & IRV happen when
voters make faulty estimates. Approval softens the adverse
consequences of those mis-estimates.

I'm not arguing for Approval vs Condorcet. I've been talking
about why Approval is better than FPTP and IRV and Borda
in terms of some important standards & criteria. Without assuming
everyone is rational or has perfect information. If everyone had
perfect information it wouldn't matter what the voting system
is--well, as long as it isn't Borda.

Mike Ossipoff




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