[EM] IRV Failures

[Eric Gorr]

Dave Ketchum wrote:

> On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:14:41 -0500 Eric Gorr wrote:
> 
>> Daniel Bishop wrote:
>>
>>> Eric Gorr wrote:
>>>
>>>> In a recent conversation with an IRV supporter I asked the question:
>>>>
>>>>  What cases would you accept as failure of IRV?
>>>>
>>>> They answered:
>>>>
>>>>  Where the general public (or a significant fraction of it) failed to
>>>>  accept the results as legitimate, or at least beyond question.  The
>>>>  2000 and 2004 Presidential elections are examples of failed elections.
>>>>  San Franciso's election was heralded as a success.
>>>>
>>>> They also believe that IRV has never failed to produce a fully 
>>>> satisfactory result. Can anyone provide evidence to the contrary?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It's going to be hard to find an example.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think you have misunderstood the kind of example I am looking for.
>>
>> Take a real case where IRV was used in an election. By the above 
>> definition of a failure, one may see many newsreports of a widespread 
>> belief that the winner was a poor one.
>>
>> If such a case exists, it would be easy to spot.
>>
>> The only thing that makes this hard is that I am not sure anyone has 
>> taken a close look at every election in which IRV was used.
> 
> 
> IRV CANNOT AFFORD to do the complete vote counts that would permit 
> comparison.  Ballots sometimes are kept around for recounts - if these 
> were counted by Condorcet rules we would have ammunition.  Even here it 
> would take a lot of recounting for, usually, Condorcet and IRV are going 
> to agree.
> 
> I constructed an example that could happen - my voters could know 
> expectable results.  Usually voters do not know what to expect close 
> enough to complain with certainty.

I fail to see what this has to do with what I am looking for which is 
simply an IRV election where a large population complained about who won.