[EM] margins and winning votes

[Fan de Condorcet]

James,

I wouldn't call myself pro-margins, but since you asked for the views of the
"other side", here's my attempt to give an overview of the arguments:

Most of the arguments for margins I've seen have been along the lines of,
"Using winning votes to prevent strategic truncation is misguided, because
providing a random ranking after a given point has a similar effect."  In
other words, most of the arguments are negative -- not positive.

One exception is that many moons ago a few people on this list argued for
margins (partly) on the grounds that it fared better in simulations that
measured social utility.

Here's Blake Cretney's page defending margins or, more accurately,
criticizing winning votes:

http://condorcet.org/rp/inc.shtml

CF

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Green-Armytage" <jarmyta at antioch-college.edu>
To: <election-methods-electorama.com at electorama.com>
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 6:46 AM
Subject: [EM] margins and winning votes


> hi folks
>
> Could anyone tell me what the argument is in favor of margins and against
> winning votes. I feel like I've only really heard the pro-winning-votes
> argument. Actually I find it quite convincing, but I feel the need to hear
> and understand the other side.
>
> thanks,
> James
>
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