[EM] Call for Ideas on Automatic Approval Cutoff Finding

[Gervase Lam]

> Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 18:55:08 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Forest Simmons <fsimmons at pcc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [EM] Call for Ideas on Automatic Approval Cutoff Finding

> Here's the simplest idea along these lines that seems promising to me.

Well.  The idea is easier to explain than Max Power "Cardinal Ratings".  
Even Plain Condorcet is easier to explain than MPCR!

However, I do have one main question.

> The second round approval cutoff is given by the expression
>
>    (r2+2*r1)/3
>
> where r1 and r2 are the ratings of the top two approval candidates in
> the first round.

Shouldn't the cutoff be r1?  Anything at or above r1 is approved.  
Anything below is disapproved.

Or really my question is, what type of cutoff does the expression 
represent?

Oh well.  I might as well ask another question:

> The method is summable in (n+1) by (n+1) matrices, where n is the number
> of real candidates.

How?  I can't imagine or visualise how this can be done!!

Thanks,
Gervase.