[EM] About random election methods

[Andrew Myers]

A lot of Condorcet election methods use randomness to elect
a winner, but in a way that I think voters will find unsatisfactory.
They simply produce a winner as part of a complex algorithm that
uses randomness at various points. MAM is an example of such
an algorithm. A voter might reasonably wonder whether the
random number generator has been "fixed" to generate the desired
result.

It seems to me that it would be more easy to justify the election method if
it consisted of two phases:

1. Deterministically generate a separate probability in [0,1]
   for a win by each alternative (i.e., no randomness is used).

2. Randomly choose among the alternatives according to their
   respective probabilities. This can be done outside the
   electronic system to make it completely clear that the
   procedure is fair.

You can imagine "lifting" existing algorithms to satisfy this description. For
example, with MAM you could consider all possible permutations of the ballots.
Of course, the problem is that this is very expensive.

Thoughts?

-- Andrew