[EM] Miscellaneous addenda to SSD vs MMPO

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Of course, from what I said, it might seem that I'm a lesser-of-2-evils 
voter too, since anyone who perceives an acceptable/unacceptable situation 
should rank the most winnable of the acceptables in 1st place, even if it 
isn't his favorite.

So what right to I have to call someone else timid, or a lesser-of-2-evils 
voter, and claim that I'm not one? It's because none of the candidates whom 
I consider acceptable are what I would call an evil, "lesser" or otherwise. 
It's revealing that people who vote for someone like Kerry call him a 
"lesser" evil. They're voting for someone they don't like. That's the sense 
in which that person is a lesser-of-2-evils voter and I'm not.

Anyone I'd rank over my favorite in wv would have to be very good,. because 
otherwise they wouldn't be acceptable.

I once said that I wouldn't rank Democrats, because they don't deserve it. 
But I guess I'd rank the Republocrats anyway, not because any are 
significantly better thaln eachother, but only because it causes them to do 
worse, and maximizes the probability that an acceptable candidate will win.

The SU loss resulting because MMPO doesn't have wv's favorite-burial 
CW-saving strategy is surely so small that it isn't important. So, not 
counting that, what it amounts to is that in MMPO, even the voter for whom 
it's an acceptable/unacceptable situation has no reason to rank someone over 
his favorite. So if it were suggested that it's biased or conservative of me 
to prefer SSD, I wouldn't disagree.

Sure, the better wv methods, such as SSD,  meet CC, Smith, ICC, and MMC. But 
what I said about CC applies to all of those: If the method doesn't meet 
FBC, and if voters are inclined to protect a compromise, then we needn't 
worry about what happens if everyone or nearly everyone votes sincerely.

I mentioned that, with MMPO, as with Approval, voting someone equal to one's 
favorite can help that candidate beat one's favorite. So, if equal ranking 
can hurt your favorite, how is it better than favorite-burial? In two ways, 
at least:

1. If you voted someone over your favorite in MMPO, you'd not only be 
reducing the votes against that compromise, but you'd be increasng the votes 
against your favorite. Similiarly in wv or any method, voting someone over 
your favorite does twice the harm to your favorite as voting someone equal 
to your favorite. That's why I say that Approval needs twice as many 
mistaken compromisers to give away an election, compared to IRV and 
Plurality. The same can be said for MMPO vs wv.

2. Voting someone equal to your favorite doesn't conceal the fact that you 
consider your favorite a 1st place candidate.

Mike Ossipoff

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