[EM] The Approval Formula

[Russ Paielli]

Folks,

A few days I posted a message about my new webpage at

http://electionmethods.org/Approval-formula.htm

which explains the "strategy" for deciding which candidates to approve 
in an Approval election. Originally this page had no derivation of the 
formula because it had already been derived and seemed so obvious 
anyway. However, I have since decided to to go ahead and derive it 
independently myself.

My derivation may (or may not) be original, but in any case I think it 
is more direct than the derivations I have seen. It does not involve any 
tie probabilities, for example. If the mathamatically minded among you 
would take a look at it, I would certainly appreciate any corrections or 
other feedback. Also, if you have seen this derivation elsewhere, please 
let me know and tell me where (if you remember).

I also made a few minor corrections. Deriving the formula makes you 
think about your assumptions, and I realized that the formula is based 
on an assumption that I had neglected to mention: that the number of 
voters is large.

Note to Mike: please do NOT reply to this message unless you READ the 
webpage completely.

--Russ