[EM] Any up for a reply to an IRV advocate in Washington State?

Bart Ingles bartman at netgate.net
Thu Jan 13 21:03:49 PST 2005


Ted Stern wrote:
> IRV advocates again, on the opinion page in today's Seattle Times:
> 
>     http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002146615_szwaja10.html
> 
> Ted

The most obvious criticism concerns the author's apparent belief that 
IRV would somehow prevent close elections.  It's just as likely that IRV 
could *cause* a close election, as in the following examples:

Example 1:
50 Bush > Kerry > Nader
45 Kerry
05 Nader > Kerry > Bush

Example 2:
50 Bush > Kerry > Dean
25 Kerry
25 Dean > Kerry > Bush

The difference is that IRV is more complex, and in the second example 
results in *two* ties in the same election.

Bart



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