[EM] What would Tom impose, and how?

[Richard Moore]

Tom Ruen wrote:

> Approval gives people 10 votes among 10 candidates, but denies people the
> right to put more than one vote per candidate. If approval were truly a
> single election, voters ought to be able to put all 10 votes anywhere, like
> cumulative voting.

There's a reason for not allowing that in Approval. Cumulative voting (in
single-winner
elections) encourages everyone to cast all their votes for their most strategic
(not necessarily favorite) candidate. So it becomes another form of Plurality.

Constraints give a voting system its characteristics. In Approval voting, two
desirable characteristics emerge from the constraint you mention: bullet voting
is discouraged, and sincere voting is encouraged. Both characteristics are lost
with Cumulative.

Richard