[EM] Methods, and the criteria they satisfy

[Dgamble997 at aol.com]

Personally I'm very suspicious of some of the lists of "objective" criteria 
to assess electoral systems which appear on various websites. Some of them are 
anything but objective. For example a particularly biased and unobjective list 
of ' objective criteria' can be found on the ElectionMethods.org website.

 http://www.electionmethods.org/evaluation.htm

Here a "pic 'n' mix" selection of criteria which the particular type of 
Condorcet that is advocated on the site passes and IRV fails are passed off as an 
unbiased set of objective measures by which to assess single seat methods.

As Arrow's theorem demonstrates no electoral system can meet a perfectly 
reasonable sounding ( and short) list of criteria. Which criteria you consider 
relevant and feel a method should meet involves some very subjective decisions 
about what features of an electoral system you consider important. 

David Gamble
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