[EM] To Bill Lewis Clark, re: Approval, CR, & IRV

[Dgamble997 at aol.com]

Bill Clark wrote:

>Just the other day, I had a lengthy discussion in email with one of my
>friends over a hypothetical Cardinal Ratings vote between Gore, Nader, and
>Bush.  He'd said that he would have voted Nader:10, Gore:7, and Bush:0. 
>Nothing I could say could convince him that he should change his rating
>for Gore.  He's not a stupid guy, either (he went to graduate school at
>Stanford, and used to teach at UC Berkeley.)

Yes I've had similar experiences. I live in London, England and during the 18 
dark years of Conservative rule when the Conservative party won 4 general 
elections due to the opposition vote being split between the Liberal Democrats 
and Labour many people, including myself, strongly advocated anti-Conservative 
tactical voting. The idea was simple. In seats where the Labour party were the 
major challengers to the Conservatives Liberal Democrat supporters tactically 
vote Labour, in seats where the Lib Dems were the challengers Labour 
supporters tactically vote Lib Dem. Trying to get people to do this can be an up hill 
struggle.

 For example in 1997 my flatmate's parents lived in a very marginal 
Conservative seat where Labour needed less than 500 votes to win. They were Liberal 
Democrat supporters who loathed the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats came a 
very poor 3rd in the seat in 1992. Inspite of this Simon's mother still voted 
Liberal Democrat knowing and accepting that they no chance of winning because 
she strongly wanted to vote sincerely and support her first choice party.

David Gamble
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