[EM] A "Runoff" type method for resolution of cycles incondorcet

[Ken Taylor]

> At 10:30 AM -0400 4/27/04, Ken Taylor wrote:
> >  > At 10:21 AM -0400 4/27/04, Ken Taylor wrote:
> >>  >I'm dropping the weakest candidate, as defined by number of first
> >>  >choice votes, which causes all their defeats of other candidates
> >>  >to be dropped.
> >>
> >>  What will you do when two or more candidates are tied for least first
> >>  choice votes?
> >>
> >
> >I'm not sure. There are probably several different ways to deal with
this,
> >and I don't think it's very relevant to evaluating the procedure in
general.
>
> If you were to drop all candidates tied for least first choice votes,
> it seems possible that your method could not claim to be cloneproof.
> Two or more clones could evenly split the vote and then all be
> eliminated even if they, in combination, had > 50% of the vote,
> implying that one of the clones should win.
>

Ahhh this is a good point. I may have underestimated the impact that a
tie-resolution strategy could have. Though, the larger the election, the
less likely that such a tie could occur.

I'm still curious as to my original question -- has this overall method been
proposed before, and what possible weakness does it have (assuming that the
tie-for-last-place problem can be solved)?

Ken