IRV mailing party adventures

[Martin Harper]

DEMOREP1 at aol.com wrote:

> That is, IRV will wipe out a compromise choice somewhat often (how often ???)

3 candidates, 100 voters, IRV, ~20,000 tests
Random electorate: in around 2-3% of elections.
Two-dimensional electorate with a gaussian distribution: less than 1%

That is, in that percentage of the elections, there will be a Condorcet winner,
and IRV will elect a different candidate.

IRV spec: draws broken according to which of the two had the higher number of
votes in the last round. Low series detected and eliminated all at once, which
slightly changes the characteristics with this method of draw resolution.

2-d electorate spec: both candidates and voters have the same independant random
gaussian distribution in a 2-d space. voters vote for candidates according to how
close they are, and on no other criteria.