[EM] ignoring "strength of opinion"

[Steve Eppley]

Briefly replying to two people's comments:

Rob Brown wrote:
-snip-
> I believe that condorcet elections intentionally ignore "strength
> of opinion" information for the exact same practical reason. Since
> there is no way to avoid collecting some strength of opinion
> information (while still collecting the information we *do* need),
> we have to consciously, intentionally ignore that information in
> the tabulation. This is NOT a bad thing. 
-snip-

I agree with both of Rob's messages so far on this topic 
except for one sentence, which I've included in this 
excerpt above.  He wrote that collecting some strength of 
opinion info cannot be avoided, but I see no strength info 
in votes that are orderings of the alternatives.

Jan Kok wrote:
-snip-
> Thus, primary elections should be considered an important target for
> voting reform efforts.  Better voting methods used in primaries can
> lead to selection of better candidates for those parties that use the
> better methods, leading to better chances for winning in the general
> election.
-snip-

I disagree.  It's the poor methods used in general 
elections that create the need to grow large coalitions 
each "supporting" one candidate. (I placed quotes around 
the word "supporting" because I mean it only in the 
relative sense of the word, not some absolute sense.)  This 
need leads to two large parties each nominating only one 
candidate per office.  How can that provide enough 
competition to be the least corrupt centrist?  

These days, primary voters assign great weight to the 
expected ability of candidates to raise campaign donations 
for the general election.  Without public funding or 
cheap/free air time in general elections, I believe 
tinkering with primaries won't have enough of an effect to 
be worth working hard for.

Also, not enough about voters' preferences on the issues 
can be learned from votes "for" one of two viable 
candidates or from votes in partisan primaries. (Sadly, 
this doesn't prevent winners from claiming mandates for 
their entire platforms.)

So, I hope the focus will be on improving the methods used 
in the general elections.  And as a means to this end, 
encouraging organizations large and small to use such 
methods in their decision-making procedures.

--Steve