[EM] Re: Condorcet package-wvx

[Russ Paielli]

Let raise both a practical and a theoretical concern about equal 
rankings in Condorcet voting.

First the practical concern. Think about how an equal-ranking capability 
would would work on a touch-screen voting machine. I've actually 
designed and programmed a full-featured GUI for voting 
(http://ElectionMethods.org/GVI.htm), so I have thought about it a bit. 
My GVI does not allow equal rankings (unless you are using it for 
Approval). The candidates are ranked in the order they are selected 
(with backtrack capability, of course). How would the voter tell the 
machine to rank two candidates equal? The voter would have to press a 
button or do something to indicate that the next selection should be 
made equal to the previous selection. You may consider that simple 
enough, but let me tell you that it would be a *major* sticking point in 
practice. Remember all those brilliant Gore voters in 2000 who couldn't 
figure out how to vote for their candidate in a simple plurality election?

On the theoretical side, what exactly would an equal-ranking capability 
accomplish? Does it give the voter some significant strategic mechanism, 
or is it simply way for the voter to express indecision? If it's the 
latter, then it is completely unnecessary. If the voter truly rates the 
candidates as precisely equal down to the tenth decimal place, then it 
really shouldn't matter to him which he ranks above the other. If the 
decision is really that difficult, he can flip a coin. Why make the 
system more complicated than it needs to be?

--Russ