[EM] Seven +/- Two

[Forest Simmons]

Very astute observation. In elections with more than twenty or thirty
candidates, there would have to be something to fall back on if the
statistics didn't come through for us. Somewhat disappointing :-(

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Richard Moore wrote:

> Forest Simmons wrote:
> 
> > Roy,
> > 
> > Thanks for the positive feedback and the good idea about graduating only
> > the current Smith set from one stage to the next, so that the natural
> > attrition in candidates reduces the computational burden in a potentially
> > intractable method.
> 
> 
> I would say it reduces the computational burden in a 
> statistical way -- and maybe by a very significant amount -- 
> but it doesn't decrease the upper bound of complexity. Maybe 
> the Smith set consists of all candidates, and the entire 
> group survives to the final (Approval) round? Implementers 
> of the method would have to consider the worst case.
> 
> Richard
> 
>