[EM] 1-Person-1-Vote has been abandoned.

Forest Simmons fsimmons at pcc.edu
Wed Jan 15 10:59:13 PST 2003


One could limit the space to so many ASCII symbols, so the person most
ingenious at describing large numbers would choose the winner.

Say there are ten symbols allowed, which would be larger

9!!!!!!!!!

or

9^9^9^9^9!  ?

If there were enough symbols to write out the phrase

"The sum of all the other numbers"

then this person would probably win, or tie with somebody else using the
same idea, at least until the idea caught on.

The question is whether everbody has an equal chance.

Obviously, not, since mathematicians and logicians would have a tremendous
advantage over the inumerate, even though mathematical training might be
neutral in respect to the essentials of judging the quality of candidates.



On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, Eric Gorr wrote:

> >Suppose each voter is to mark one candidate and write down one number in
> >the space provided on the ballot, and that the winner of the election is
> >the candidate marked on the ballot that has the largest number in the
> >space provided.
>
> I just just see this turning into a contest of stamina as the obvious
> strategy to use would be to just sit there and write 9s until you're
> the last one standing.
>
> If one is just limited to the space on the ballot, the winner (or
> tie) always goes to the one who had the person with the smallest,
> legible handwriting style. Tools of the trade would be a writing
> utensil with the finest tip, etc. Of course, judging 'legibility'
> would be interesting...perhaps handed over to handwriting recognition
> software designed for this purpose.
>
>
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