[EM] IRV vs. Plurality

[Bart Ingles]

I think it would be hard to get the proxy concept into public elections,
but maybe for party primaries.  As a sort of "approval purist", I would
lean toward making "No Proxy" the default, replacing the checkbox with
one labeled, "Allow Proxy".

One way to judge the applicability of the proxy idea is to consider a
Proxy/FPTP hybrid.  If proxy voting adds anything to an approval
election, then the benefit when added to a first-past-the-post election
should be even greater, shouldn't it?

Bart


Forest Simmons wrote:
> 
> What do you think of the Candidate Proxy / Approval hybrid that I
> suggested a few months ago?
> 
> Voters fill out regular approval style ballots. If a voter makes only one
> mark on the ballot, then (by default) the marked candidate (as proxy for
> the voter) may approve additional candidates on behalf of the voter in the
> Election Completion Convention.
> 
> If a voter wants to approve only one candidate without the proxy option,
> then the voter must make another mark on the ballot on the "no proxy"
> line. [Treating the "no proxy" line the same as a candidate line allows
> the use of standard plurality ballots.]
> 
> In summary, if a voter marks at least two lines on the ballot by approving
> at least two candidates or by marking a candidate and the "no proxy" line,
> then the approval ballot will be counted "as is" in the Election
> Completion Convention, otherwise the lone mark candidate is proxy for the
> voter. [If the lone mark is on the "no proxy" line, then no candidate is
> approved by the ballot.]
> 
> Even if I had rather strong feelings about whom to approve and whom to not
> approve, if I trusted my favorite enough I might go ahead and designate
> her as my proxy in order to give her more leverage in the Election
> Completion Convention.
> 
> Also if I didn't trust the polls, and the popularity of the candidates was
> an important consideration in deciding the approval cutoff, I might want
> to give proxy status to my favorite, since her final decisions would be
> made after the "as is" approval ballots were tallied.
> 
> It seems to me that the average voter would find this method to be simpler
> to use than Approval, and that the method would preserve all of the
> advantages that Approval has over other methods.