The Allure of IRV (fwd)

[Forest Simmons]

Craig Layton gave me permission to forward his reply to the EM list:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 09:19:19 +1000
From: LAYTON Craig <Craig.LAYTON at dadhc.nsw.gov.au>
To: 'Forest Simmons' <fsimmons at pcc.edu>, MIKE OSSIPOFF <nkklrp at hotmail.com>
Cc: election-methods-list at eskimo.com
Subject: RE: The Allure of IRV

Hello all

Forest wrote:

>Craig Layton, are you there?  Correct me.  Is the "above line option" only
>there for PR elections?  Is it there for all STV elections, multiple
>winner or single winner?

The above line option is only there for multi-winner (PR) elections, where
90-95% of ballots are above the line.

However, in single winner elections how-to-vote cards are very important and
followed by a large number of voters, which pretty much amounts to the same
thing.  I'm not aware of any studies or concrete figures on exactly how many
voters follow the cards, but anecdotal evidence suggests any close three way
contests are more often than not decided on the preferences on the cards
(ie, in a close-ish race between A, B & C, if A and B both "endorse" C to
recieve their 2nd preferences, then C is likely to win whether he is the
sincere IRV winner or not).  This is why when you read Australian media on
elections they talk about a candidate giving their preferences to another
candidate, which I can see could be misleading.

On a more general note (in relation to your current discussion).  I've come
to the conclusion, by talking to regular people defending IRV, that the
reason people don't like alternatives (such as approval) so much is that
they can't get past the concept that a vote is an indivisible, immutable
object (like a billiard ball, I think the metaphor goes).  This concept has
been with most people their entire lives, and it is difficult to convince
even otherwise rational people to let it go.  I suspect that only through
more open debate about divergent electoral methods will this be broken down.

Regards,

Craig


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