[EM] Markus reply 13 Feb 1140 GMT

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Ok, Markus, I guess you definitely aren't going to say what you mean by 
"prefer". And that's ok.

You said:

an election method is a mapping from a given input to a
given output. Where this input comes from or what this
input actually represents is of no concern as long
as it has the properties required by this election
method.

I reply:

You can speak of degrees of apple-sweetness instead of pairwise votes if you 
want to, but then it isn't a voting system. It's an apple-sweetness rating.

The fact that 2 things have the same mathematical form doesn't make them the 
same. You're talking about something with resemblence to a voting system. If 
it's apples, then it's a sweeter-apples system. If it's "prefers X to Y" 
instead of "votes X over Y", then it's a preferring system not a voting 
system.

Mike Ossipoff

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