[EM] a majority rule definition based on the Smith set

[Kevin Venzke]

Russ,

--- Russ Paielli <6049awj02 at sneakemail.com> wrote:
> The usage of the word "majority" by some here seems a bit inconsistent 
> to me. In a pairwise race, the majority that seems to matter to them is 
> *not* a majority of voters who actually *voted* on that particular 
> pairwise race -- but rather a majority of the total number of voters who 
> voted for other pairwise races for the same office. In other words, a 
> majority is defined relative to the *potential* rather than the *actual* 
> number of voters.

Yes. I've explained why this is useful for practical, strategic reasons.

> But wait just a minute. If the majority that really matters is relative 
> to the *potential* number of voters, then why isn't it defined relative 
> to the total number of voters who voted in the entire election, 
> including those who did not vote at all on that particular office? Or 
> why is it not defined relative to the total number of *registered* 
> voters? Better yet, why is it not defined relative to the total number 
> of *eligible* voters, registered or not?

You could define it that way, but it would make the method less sensitive,
without any benefit that I can see.

> To put it another way, when a voter intentionally abstains from voting 
> in a pairwise race, why is that voter still relevant in any way to the 
> correct interpretation of the score of that race? That's a rhetorical 
> question, because I'll bet that any answer will simply be a rationalization.

If you want abstaining voters to be irrelevant, then you could use relative
margins. But I don't think you can use absolute margins, since that measures
strength as the difference between the vote totals *as a fraction of the
total number of votes*. And the more voters that abstain from a given pairwise
contest, the smaller this fraction will be.

As an example, I can't see how to argue that 50:25 should be stronger than 6:3,
without resorting to WV-ish arguments placing value on the literal number of 
voters expressing one preference over another.

Kevin Venzke



	

	
		
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