[EM] When 2 candidates have majorities in Bucklin

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Sure, when Bucklin's final round gives majorities to more than one 
candidate, Bucklin's simple solution might not be the best. But I emphasize 
that, even with that solution, Bucklin meets WDSC & SDSC, and, with equal 
rankings, probably meets FBC, and, with AERLO, probably meets Strong FBC.

Bucklin, in that situation, gives the victory to the candidate with the most 
votes.

In spirit of Bucklin, it would be best to give victory to the candidate who 
needs the smallest fraction of hir votes that s/he received in the final 
round, the one that gave to hir a majority.

That might be one of the solutiions that Forest suggested.

But Mr. Bucklin very likely knew that his simplest possible solution would 
be better for a public proposal, because saying "The candidate with the most 
votes wins" is simpler and briefer than talkling about fractions, the 
fraction of a candidates votes from the final round that s/he needed to get 
a majorilty.

So, though I'd use the improved solution for counting our presidential poll 
by Bucklin, I'd probably use Mr. Bucklin's simpler solution in a public 
proposal. Of course Bucklin would rarely be the best public proposal for a 
rank method, because, with counting computers, there's no reason not to use 
Coindorcet, a better method. Still, for most organizations that don't want 
to use a computer to count a rank balloting, and want to use an easy 
handcount, I'd suggest Bucklin with Bucklin's own simplest possible 
solution: The majority candidate with the most votes wins.

By the way, all the Ciondorcet versions discussed on EM choose Jones in 
Rob's example, as does Bucklin with the improved rule for when there's more 
than 1 candidate with a majority.

Mike Ossipoff

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