[EM] Condorcet strategy and anti-strategy measures

[Fan de Condorcet]

James,

Like you, I think minimizing the need for order reversal strategies is a
good idea.  Like Markus, I think using a second balloting to do so is a bad
idea.

Some thoughts on deterring order reversal strategies without having a second
balloting:

(1) Give some other important role to the runner-up.  The US constitution
originally declared that the Vice President would be the runner-up of the
presidential election.  Under plurality, this didn't work out so well, but I
don't think it would be so problematic using, say, Ranked Pairs.  If we
still wanted to elect representatives in single-seat districts, we could end
the practice of letting governors appoint their replacements.

If we use your example, then in theory conservatives wouldn't want to rank
Nader over Gore, because they wouldn't want to help Nader become VP.

(2) Elect the top two candidates to the office.  That is, there could be a
planned split term, with the people's first choice holding office for the
first part of the term and the second choice holding office for the latter
part.  (If Shulze's method were used, the strength of the beatpaths could be
used to determine how the term would be split.)

Using your example again, conservatives wouldn't want to rank Nader over
Gore, because they might get stuck with Nader as President, if only for part
of the term.

One drawback to my first proposal is that, as my girlfriend pointed out to
me, people don't assign all that much importance to the Vice Presidency.
This second proposal eliminates the problem, since everyone is still running
for only one office.

CF