[EM] Margins

[Kevin Venzke]

Hello.

Regarding Blake's page
http://condorcet.org/rp/inc.shtml

I get the impression that his main argument is under the section called "Punishing
People for Leaving Candidates Unranked."  He says it is inadvisable to truncate
in WV, that it would likely be better for a ballot to be randomly completed, from
the perspective of getting that voter what he wants.

I think randomly completing the ballots (as Margins effectively does) amounts to
assuming that a truncating voter wishes to use offensive strategy, by helping
semi-viable candidates against more viable competition.  I think this is something
voters should have to do explicitly.

For instance, with the scenario:
49 A
24 B
27 C>B

Margins picks A by supposing the A voters want to give equal support to B and C,
which makes C much more important than he should be, and turns him into a spoiler.
I think this is something the A voters should have to do deliberately, not by
default.

Steve Eppley wrote:
>There is a possible compromise between margins and 
>majorities (but I prefer straight majorities, not 
>this compromise):  
>
>   If the voter leaves two candidates unranked, 
>   don't count that as a half vote for each, count it 
>   as zero for each.  But if the voter explicitly ranks 
>   two candidates as equal, count that as a half vote 
>   for each.

Does anyone know who devised this?

Kevin Venzke
stepjak at yahoo.fr


	

	
		
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