[EM] 3 questions for Markus

[Markus Schulze]

Dear Mike,

you wrote (19 Sep 2000):
> Beatpath GMC says nothing about the degree of insincere voting
> that anyone does or doesn't need. Could you explain how
> Beatpath GMC is about need for insincere voting, or protecting
> sincere voting?
>
> Maybe you mean that compliance with Beatpath GMC implies
> compliance with criteria that _are_ about protecting sincere
> voting. But then what are those criteria?
>
> For instance, BC doesn't say anything about protecting sincere
> voting, but compliance with BC means compliance with SFC, GSFC,
> WDSC, & SDSC. That's what makes it possible to say that BC
> protects sincere voting. What makes it possible to say that
> Beatpath GMC protects sincere voting?
>
> Maybe the fact that compliance with Beatpath GMC implies compliance
> with SFC, GSFC, WDSC, & SDSC.
>
> Can you say why you believe that a method that meets Beatpath GMC
> protects sincere voting better than a method that meets BC but
> doesn't meet Beatpath GMC?
>
> Can you justify Beatpath GMC's claim to protecting sincere voting
> without referrence to SFC, GSFC, WDSC or SDSC?
>
> We considered including the criterion BC, but didn't, because
> BC doesn't speak directly about sincere or insincere voting.
> That's also a reason to not use Beatpath GMC.

It seems to me that you believe that criteria that are defined on
the actually casted ballots and not on the sincere opinions of the
voters don't say anything about the need for insincere voting.
I don't agree with you because in praxi a criterion that is defined
on more than the actually casted ballots cannot say anything that
cannot be said by a criterion that is defined only on the actually
casted ballots because --in so far as election methods are always
defined on the actually casted ballots and not on the sincere
opinions of the voters-- the fact that a given election method
meets a given criterion must be reflected in the way in which this
election method evaluates the actually casted ballots. Therefore
whether a given election method meets SFC (resp. GSFC resp. WDSC
resp. SDSC) must depend only on how this election method evaluates
the actually casted ballots. Therefore it must be possible to
define SFC (resp. GSFC resp. WDSC resp. SDSC) on the actually
casted ballots. When you have defined SFC, GSFC, WDSC and SDSC on
the actually casted ballots, then we can discuss whether these
criteria or BC or beat-path GMC should be used.

Markus Schulze
schulze at sol.physik.tu-berlin.de
schulze at math.tu-berlin.de
markusschulze at planet-interkom.de