[EM] Borda Count to the median

[David Catchpole]

Interesting... definitely interesting... Intuition tells me this system
would be majoritarian, which knocks out the number one nasty feature of
Borda. I think I'll have a fiddle around with this system!

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Michael A. Rouse wrote:

> This is my first post, and I haven't had a chance yet to go through 
> the archive to see if this method has been covered, so if it has 
> obvious flaws forgive me :)
> 
> Given that a Borda Count is relatively consistant and 
> generally "fair" (if a bit prone to wacky behavior when people either love
> or hate the candidate), yet a voter can "cheat" by rating his favorite's 
> chief opponent artificially low, how about the following modification:
> 
> Conduct a standard election with BC-style rank ballots. Starting with 
> each candidate's highest-ranked ballots, count out a number equal to 
> the smallest absolute majority of total votes cast. If 1000 (or 1001) 
> votes were cast, you would take the 501 highest-rated votes for the 
> candidate. Use these votes in a Borda Count. The candidate with the 
> highest total is the winner.
> 
> It's almost a cross between BC and Approval, and cutting it in the 
> middle assumes both sides of an election curve are symmetric. There 
> are of course possible paradox conditions (it doesn't always pick 
> Condorcet winner where one candidate is loved and despised by large 
> numbers of voters), but I think it would cut down on the influence of 
> artificially-low votes given to principal opponents.
> 
> If you have any insights or know of a fatal flaw in this method, just 
> let me know. Thanks!
> 
> Michael Rouse
> mrouse at internetcds.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I only said we'd make it across"
				-"Road Trip"