[EM] Action

[Joe Weinstein]

Alex et al.,

Apologies for not saying earlier that: (1) I am all for your proposal, and 
(2) I volunteer for the Abstract (which of course will eventually need the 
other sections in place) or anyhow to at least review and try to improve on 
and correct what others write.

     [I've lately been extremely pressed for time, esp. what with municipal 
primary elections here in Long Beach this last week.  (The bad guys won 
again, with a turnout of 15%, a triumph for the local soporific newsrag, 
which feeds at city hall's trough and will never see malfeasance or evil - 
except of course in the likes of us troublemaking naysayers.)  All you will 
read in the national press is about the impending June mayoralty runoff 
between the termed-out successfully-written-in mayor and the ambitious 
vice-mayor.  What you may or may not read is that essentially both 
candidates are do-nothing feel-good glad-handers.  What for sure you will 
not read is that their two campaigns were by far the most expensive, and 
featured bragged accomplishments and promises that are basically irrelevant 
to the city's actual problems.]

I hope that the white paper, as a well-backgrounded product of scientists, 
will briefly mention and describe and in broad strokes evaluate a broad 
spectrum of available election methods.  Then Approval can be presented as 
the simplest and currently and foreseeably most workable of all these 
methods, and one which achieves at least 80% of the potential advantage, at 
minimal or no cost.

Such a survey portion may not be the key part of the paper for reporters or 
public to focus on, but it will help make the case that Approval (unlike IRV 
or Lone-Mark) is the result of systematic scientific study and objective 
considerations, and is not merely another historical accident or 
subjectively appealing here-it-is and aint-it-pretty arbitrary choice of 
method.  I volunteer, for over the next two months, to write a first draft 
of this sort of survey discussion.

Joe Weinstein
Long Beach CA USA

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