How to vote in Approval

[Dave Ketchum]

Ok, we are getting in too deep:
      You like approval because I cannot say enough as a voter to make the 
counting difficult.
      I choke on approval because approve/disapprove sounds simple but is 
hard to quantify when looking at actual candidates.
      I like Condorcet because I CAN say the two things I care most about:
           Approve of the candidate I MOST like.
           Get in on deciding between the candidates most likely to win.

Item of interest is that, among Approval/IRV/Condorcet, paper ballots can 
be identical - a box beside each candidate's name for a number or an X.

In anything new, counting should be by computer - which can be programmed 
for any of these (have the IRV people solved consolidating among a state's 
precincts with 9 candidates for governor (NY had 9 people in 12 slots 
(fusion) in NY in 1998 - likely as many this year for we have 8 parties 
trying to hang on, and Libertarians and others wanting in).  Approval and 
Condorcet have manageable amounts of data to consolidate.
      Adding to the above - how does IRV tell people what their precinct 
or county did to contribute to state totals?  Again, Approval and 
Condorcet have manageable, understandable, statistics.

A puzzle:
      We are told IRV has been widely used for a long time.
      We are convinced IRV can result in real life horror stories.
      Have any of these actually happened?

If there are horror stories we should be warning the media that they had 
best not get caught promoting a sick horse.

I can see promoting Approval as better than IRV, for lack of horror story 
potential and for being easy to describe.  Seems to me that Condorcet 
should get mention at the SAME time as being even better for giving the 
voter more power, even though the description is more complex.

As to stories:  A shepherd who had a choice between losing one lamb and 
losing none properly chose to lose none.  Another shepherd who had a 
choice between losing one and losing half the flock to wolves had best 
settle for losing one.  Extend this to Presidents and SOME lives ARE going 
to be lost.
      Try another thought:
           Leaving the road primitive can mean deaths from accidents.
           Rebuilding the road can mean deaths of construction workers.
           Balance is needed.

On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:26:53 -0800 MIKE OSSIPOFF wrote (not included):

-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    http://www.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
   Dave Ketchum    108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708    607-687-5026
              Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                    If you want peace, work for justice.