Majority? Expressivity? Strategy?

[Tom Ruen]

I'm not up really on where this is coming from, but that would be a pretty
challenging pre-election poll by any assumed election method.

No election method can guarantee a majority winner if voters refuse to offer
compromises, whether we're talking rated (approval), ranked (irv/condorcet),
or weighted (cumulative, Borda) election methods. IRV counts majority with
exhausted ballots excluded which isn't quite fair.

A centrist candidate certainly has an advantage in such a 3-way election, no
matter what method. He would claim left/right choices are extreme and he is
the safe vote. No one but a centrist has much hope of getting a majority in
such an election.

Personally, if this is approval voting, and I liked two overall, I'd support
both, knowing the centrist will likely win. If I really only liked one, I
might just bullet vote for that one.

Tom

----- Original Message -----
From: <DEMOREP1 at aol.com>
To: <election-methods-list at eskimo.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: Majority? Expressivity? Strategy?


> Mr. Moore wrote--
>
> On "majority rule": I don't rate it as high on my list of criteria as,
say,
> monotonicity.
> ---
> D- Another example-
>
> A pre-election poll indicates-
>
> A 34
> B 33
> C 32
>
>    99
>
> Does anybody vote for second choices if a majority requirement is NOT
> required in the election (as for President, Governor or Mayor) ???