[EM] Re: approval strategy (Russ Paielli)

[RLSuter at aol.com]

Kevin,

I think my message was prompted by Alex Small's message,
but I wasn't replying specifically to him or to Russ Paielli.
Rather, I was trying to say that many comments I've read
on this list about how supporters of particular candidates
should vote stratetgically in approval elections make little
sense to me because they don't account for the fact that
supporters of the same candidate can and often do have
widely varied and divergent views about that and other
candidates.

Because it would be next to impossible for any approval
strategy formula to account for all these differences, I'm
skeptical about all formulas that purport to express ideal
strategies for supporters of particular candidates. Before
one can hope to know the best strategy for a particular
voter, one must know how strongly and in what ways that
voter favors or disfavors all of the different candidates,
not just the one she or he favors the most.

-Ralph

---------------------------------------------------------
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Kevin Venzke wrote:

Ralph,

 --- RLSuter at aol.com a écrit : 
> Many comments about approval strategy have made little sense
> to me, because they ignore the fact that strong supporters of a
> particular candidate can have very divergent views about other
> candidates.
>
> Given the great diversity of voter opinions on a variety of
> key concerns, I just don't see how it is possible to state
> formulas that are optimal for all or even most supporters
> of particular candidates.

Is this a reply to Alex Small's message about Green voting strategy?

Alex Small wrote:
>I would think that the strategy is straight-forward:  If the Green is 
>one of the top 2 contenders >in pre-election polls then the Green's 
>supporters should vote for the Green and anybody they >prefer to the Green.

Are you saying Alex's response makes little sense to you given Russ Paielli's
scenario?

Russ Paielli wrote:
>Let's say that Approval has just been adopted. Well, Greens will vote 
>for their Green candidate plus the Democrat and everyone else they 
>prefer to the Democrat. That's the easy part.
>
>But now let's say that Approval has been in use for several election 
>cycles, and the Green is starting to catch up to the Democrat. Well, the 
>Green Party will certainly urge their supporters to drop their vote for 
>that pesky Democrat. But if they take the advice, they risk handing the 
>election over to the Republicans, of course.

Or are you saying that Russ Paielli's scenario makes little sense to you?

Kevin Venzke