[EM] Demorep & Approval

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Demorep said:

>As usual, I must note again for newer EM folks, that approval is defective
>because it claims equal yes (1) votes for 2 or more choices when, of 
>course,
>no such thing actually exists in real public elections.

Wrong. Approval doesn't claim "yes votes" for anyone.
Approval doesn't have "Yes" and "No" votes. It just has votes.

And Approval doesn't "claim" votes, whatever that means. Voters give
votes to candidates, as they choose.

But most likely, Demorep means to repeat his old claim that Approval
is "defective" because it isn't a rank method.

All rank methods let you express all of your preferences. Nearly
all rank methods will make you sorry you did. Being allowed to
vote all your pairwise preferences means little if you'll sometimes
regret that you didn't vote a lesser-evil over your favorite, as
most rank method will sometimes require you to do.

There's one rank method that doesn't have that problem: Condorcet,
in its various versions. So what it really amounts to is that Demorep
is again criticising Approval because it isn't Condorcet. But only
Condorcet can be Condorcet.

No, Approval isn't Condorcet, but it does better by strategy criteria
than any method other than Condorcet.

Mike Ossipoff

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