[EM] 04/03/02 - Adam needs a method that will win elections for his party:

[Donald Davison]

04/03/02 - Adam needs a method that will win elections for his party:

Greetings List,

On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, Adam wrote:
"...weakness of IRV: it does not break the system out of a two-party duopoly."

Adam, you are confused.  It is not a weakness of IRV that it does not
interfer with the voters and with an election when it does not break the
system out of a two-party duopoly.  Instead, it is the strength of IRV that
it allows the public to break the system out of a two-party duopoly,
provided that is what the public wants to do.

When the people have reason to support a third party they will support a
third party.

IRVing merely makes it easier for them to do that because IRVing treats all
candidates and parties with equality, but any candidate of any party still
needs to get the votes in order to win.  IRVing will not do that for them.

The only obligation of an election method is to handle the math of an
election in an un-bias manner.  The method is not to favor any candidate
nor party.  IRVing is the best method in doing this.

Adam, you are giving yourself away.  By saying the above you are admitting
that you know that your third party candidate cannot the election, so you
want a method used that will win the election for him.  You're correct,
IRVing will not win elections for any candidate.  That's the responsibility
of the voters.

It is understandable that you support Approval Voting, for it is a method
that will steal an election for a third party.

Because the people will not support your party is not the fault of any
method.  It is the fault of your third class party.

It is the public that should have the power to decide which party is to be
propelled up into the winner's circle.  IRVing gives the public that power.
The other methods, Plurality, Approval, Borda, and Condorcet, will favor
one faction or another.

Donald,



Regards,
   Donald Davison, host of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald

   +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
   |                        Q U O T A T I O N                          |
   |  "Democracy is a beautiful thing,                                 |
   |        except that part about letting just any old yokel vote."   |
   |                           - Age 10 -                              |
   +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    APV   Approval Voting
    ATV   Alternative Vote  aka  IRV Instant Runoff Voting  aka  IRVing
    FPTP  First Past The Post  aka  Plurality
    NOTA  None of the Above  aka  RON Re-Open Nominations
    STV   Single Transferable Vote  aka  Preference Voting  aka  Choice Voting
          aka  Hare Clarke  aka  Hare Preferential Voting

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