[EM] 11/05/02 - Tom, Help has Arrived:

[Donald E Davison]

11/05/02 - Tom, Help has Arrived:

Hi Tom,

Donald here, I support Irving, aka IRV, and as far as I know I am the only
one on this list that does, so you see this list is sort of a `backwater of
electoral reform'.

I've been on this list for more than five years studying the different
single seat election methods, and to date, I can say that there is no
method better than Irving.

If you are going to be reading the stuff that is written on this list you
need to understand the mindset of the people on this list, that is, why do
they so much want Condorcet and/or Approval Voting, two methods that can be
manipulated.

In order to help you understand the mindset of these people, I am reposting
a letter I posted back in August of this year:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
08/01/02 - Understanding the Condorcet Mindset: by Donald Davison

Dear fellow voters,

In order to understand the appeal of Condorcet to some people, we need to
understand the mindset of those people.  We need to understand the
Condorcet Mindset.  The Condorcet Mindset can best be shown by the telling
of a true story from the Special Olympics - sporting events arranged for
people who are disabled.  The story goes as follows:  The event was a
footrace, the starting gun fired and the contestants were off.  One of the
contestants only took a few steps before he stumbled, fell on his face, and
started to cry.  The others stopped, turned around, came back, and picked
up their fallen fellow contestant.  After which they all walked together,
shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, towards the finish line and all crossed
at the same time, end of story.

Now, this is a cute little story of human experience that some even rated
as being worthy of two hankies for tears, but this story can also serve as
a good example of the Condorcet Mindset, a very good example if we give the
story a different ending.  Try this ending: `After which they all walked
together, shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, towards the finish line.  One
step from the line the fallen contestant was pushed first across the line
to be the winner.'   The new ending better shows the Condorcet mindset.

Condorcet supporters want an election method that will pick up a candidate
who is flat on his face and push him first across the finish line.  Now, of
course, the last candidate is not going to win every time with Condorcet,
but the mindset dictates that the method should be so constructed as to tax
all the voters into helping the last candidate to be first at least some of
the times.

Sortition would be the best method to give all candidates an equal chance
of winning, but that method is kind of gross, even for people of the
Condorcet Mindset, they prefer the pretense of an election if only to fool
the public.  Proportional Sortition has been suggested at times, but it is
still gross, a candidate with only one vote could still win.  That would
not fly in the face of the voters.

Condorcet has enough deception to make it seem acceptable.  This is more to
the liking of the Condorcet Mindset people.  Deceptive, because your lower
choices will be turned into full votes and be used to help other candidates
win while your first preferred choice is still a contender.  If this help
to other candidates happens to be collected on the last candidate, the last
candidate could win, but it is not assured.  Condorcet will require that
almost all the voters to foolishly make a lower choice for the last
candidate, this most likely will not happen, the voters are not that
stupid, at least I don't think the voters are that stupid, but the
Condorcet `junkies' are banking that the voters are that stupid.

Approval is a better method than Condorcet at deceiving the voters, for it
only needs half of the voters of the two largest factions to foolishly make
a lower choice for the same lower candidate, if so, that candidate wins.
Five years ago, on the Election Methods list, the talk was all about
Condorcet.  Now the talk is all about Approval Voting.  It took those
Concorcet Mindset people a few years to realize that Approval Voting is
more deceptive than Condorcet and would fill their mindset more often than
Condorcet.  Current supporters of Condorcet are in transition, now they
love the cuteness of Condorcet, but once they wise up, they too will be
supporting Approval Voting.

Condorcet and Approval Voting are cute parlor games and should only be used
as such.  The two methods and their many variants should never be used for
any election that is important.  They should only be used for elections in
which the results are meaningless, like beauty contests and deciding which
are the best colors for the M&M candies.

It is best not to talk about Condorcet or Approval Voting.  If, during the
discussion of Irving, someone should mention Condorcet or Approval Voting,
merely remark something like the following: `We don't advocate that method
because that is a method that will use your lower choices to help defeat
your earlier choices.' - - enough said.

It is not the job of any method to be political by favoring some candidates
over others, that is the job of the voters.  The method should merely treat
all voters and candidates equally and do the math without deception.
Irving is the only method to fill that job.

Regards,
   Donald Davison, host of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald
                        Candidate Election Methods
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   |                        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 -                              |
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