[EM] equal rankings IRV (was: Approval vs ??)

[Eric Gorr]

At 7:58 PM -0800 3/26/04, James Green-Armytage wrote:
>	For single-winner purposes, I have the impression that whole votes are
>better, and that is basically what I'm suggesting in lieu of approval
>unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Based on what I was told by Dave Robinson of http://demochoice.org, 
the problem with whole votes is that it would allow:

   some voters will be able to use duplicate votes to bury
   candidates they don't like, giving them an unfair advantage over
   voters who don't use duplicates, and giving them an incentive to
   mask their true preferences by ranking equally instead of listing
   the preference.

and he recommended the fractional method. All of the IRVists I have 
spoken with recommend against equal rankings. On this topic, I would 
tend to trust the opinion of someone who truly believes in the method 
and has likely studied the issue of whole vs. fractional votes.