[EM] Re: Richard's criteria

[Richard Moore]

It occurred to me that the phrase "The method allows full ranking of 
all candidates" might be sufficient, instead of the more difficult 
wording of my last message, depending on the correct interpretation of 
the following:

"votes sincerely"

and

"falsely voting two candidates equal"

To help interpret the first phrase, we have the following statement:

"A sincere vote is one with no falsified preferences or preferences 
left unspecified when the election method allows them to be specified 
(in addition to the preferences already specified)."

The ambiguity here lies in the phrase, "already specified". I don't 
think that refers to the chronological order in which the ballot is 
marked. So what does it refer to? Top-to-bottom ranking order?

As for the second phrase, we now know that "voting two candidates 
equal" has the following special meaning, provided by Mike: "A voter 
votes X equal to Y if s/he doesn't vote X over Y, and doesn't vote Y 
over X, and votes X over someone, and votes Y over someone."

So if a ballot is truncated (but fully ranked above the truncation 
point), it cannot be "falsely voting two candidates equal" since it 
isn't "voting two candidates equal". However, if a ballot has two 
candidates voted equal at the top, or somewhere in the middle, and 
this equal voting is forced by constraints of the method, is this 
considered *falsely* voting the candidates equal?

To be sure I have the correct understanding of both phrases, I ask 
Mike the following questions:

Suppose a method allows candidates to be ranked on a maximum of four 
levels. Also suppose there is a restriction in this method that the 
top and bottom levels may each have at most one candidate on any 
ballot, but the other candidates may be distributed over the middle 
levels in any way the voter chooses.

Now, if my preferences are A>B>C>D>E>F, which of the following are 
sincere votes, and which ones have two candidates falsely voted equal, 
according to the electionmethods.org usage of these phrases?

Ballot 1: A>B>C=D=E>F
Ballot 2: A>B=C>D=E>F
Ballot 3: A>B=C=D>E>F

  -- Richard