[EM] Voter instructions for Approval & Range Voting

[RLSuter at aol.com]

Before the effects of "strategic" vs. "sincere" voting in
elections using Approval Voting (AV) or Range Voting (RV)
can be adequately assessed, there needs to be more clarity
about what the best strategies really are or how they
can be arrived at by voters wanting to maximize the impact
of their votes according to their overall individual
preferences. In some if not many or even most cases,
strategic voting and sincere voting will be identical.

It seems to me that the only reasonable strategy for any
voter who prefers one candidate more than any other or
who has an equal regard for two or more candidates and
prefers them over all other candidates is to give each
such candidate the strongest possible vote, meaning either
an approval vote if AV is used or the highest possible
rating if RV is used. In fact, it seems to me that this
is so incontestably true that it should be included in
instructions to voters, as shown below.

These instructions may be too complicated for some
voters, but that's a separate and I think minor issue.
Aside from written instructions, formal voter training
could be offered to voters who need or want it. Such
training could even be offered at polling places on
election days. After a few elections, the number of
people needing voter training would diminish greatly.

One advantage of both instructions and voter training is
that they would help enable voters to understand how to
vote strategically and would greatly reduce any advantage
that strategically sophisticated voters would otherwise
have.

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VOTING INSTRUCTIONS

Part 1 (for both AV and RV) Check any candidate
you prefer over all the other candidates. If there
is more than one candidate who you prefer equally
well and who you prefer over all the other candidates,
check all of them. You are not required to do so,
but voting methods experts all agree that this is
the only reasonable way for you to vote if you prefer
one or several candidates more than all the others.

    *  *  *

Part 2 (for AV only) You may (but aren't required
to) check additional candidates as well. You may want
to do so if you think there is a good chance your
preferred candidate(s) won't win and you want to
help a less preferred candidate who you think has
a chance of winning. Another reason you may want
to do so is to help defeat one or more candidates
who you find particularly undesirable. If that
is your goal, you may want to check all candidates
except the one(s) you find most undesirable.

Part 2 (for RV only): For each candidate you haven't
checked as a most preferred candidate, check one
of the numerical ratings. The higher the rating you
choose for a particular candidate, the more you will
help that candidate. The candidate(s) you have already
checked as most preferred will automatically receive
the highest rating. You may also want to give one
or more additional candidates the highest rating,
especially if you think the candidate(s) you have
checked as most preferred have little or no chance
of winning. You are not required to rate all or even
any of the candidates, but keep in mind that those
you don't rate will automatically receive a "0"
rating. Also, keep in mind that whenever you give
two candidates the same rating, you will be helping
them equally much (or equally little). Therefore,
if you want to help one candidate more than another,
you should rate the candidate you prefer at least one
rating number higher than the other one. If there is
one candidate (or several) that you like less than all
the others, you should give each such candidate a "0"
rating and give all the others a "1" or higher rating.
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If anyone thinks these instructions don't make sense or
wouldn't work, please explain why. I'm still trying to
decide if I should support Range Voting as a promising
alternative to other methods.

-Ralph Suter