[EM] Re: Candidate withdrawal option

[Steve Eppley]

Hi,

James G-A wrote:
> Russ,
-snip-
> 	I don't think that there are too many details to know. 
> The basic idea is that after the initial tally, a candidate 
> can withdraw and order a re-tally as if they had not 
> participated. 
-snip-
>
>> What is the time limit for withdrawal? Is it hours, days, 
>> or weeks? And what if the results are very close or the 
>> counting process hits a technical snag? Does the candidate 
>> get extra time to wait for confirmed counts before he must 
>> decide?
>
> 	I would say that the time limit should start after the raw 
> count results have been made official. Then, I'd probably give 
> the candidates a few days to decide. (In many cases, of course, 
> no non-winning candidate withdrawal could change the outcome, 
> and in those cases, the tally could probably be made official 
> right away.)

It's also important that the official counts be made available
to all the candidates in a downloadable format, so that
each candidate can perform "what if?" simulations to help
him/her decide whether to withdraw.

>> Is it possible that one candidate might want to withdraw 
>> only after another particular candidate withdraws? 
> 
> 	Yes, it is possible.
> 
>> If so, this could get complicated. What if the first candidate 
>> tries to withdraw at the last second to deny the second 
>> candidate enough time to withdraw? Would the second candidate 
>> get some sort of minimum additional time to withdraw?
> 
> 	I would say yes. Let's say that the candidates have an initial 
> three days to decide. On the second day, candidate R announces 
> his withdrawal. If another outcome-changing withdrawal is 
> possible, then there would be another three days for people 
> to decide... and so on, with each withdrawal renewing the 
> decision period.

That's a reasonable approach, but perhaps the additional
periods of time should be reduced.

For simplicity, I think it would also be reasonable
just to have a fixed deadline for any candidates 
to decide whether to withdraw.  I'm assuming the
number of candidates who would be deterred from
competing (for fear of spoiling) will not be
significantly greater with the fixed deadline.

An additional option would be to allow candidates 
to jointly announce their withdrawal.

--Steve