[EM] Conversations with people new to voting systems

[RLSuter at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/27/05 1:57:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
election-methods-electorama.com-request at electorama.com writes:

> With CR, it's transparently obvious that no one has any reason to
> not give maximum points to their favorite--that giving maximum points
> to compromise Kerry is in no way weakened by also giving maximim
> points to favorite Nader.

You are surely mistaken. There will people who won't like any candidates
very much and will be strongly inclined to give them all fewer than the
maximum points unless the ballot is written in such a way that voters
are required or strongly advised to give at least one candidate maximum
points. With CR (range voting) as well as with approval voting, ballot
language must be considered a part of the method itself, because
different ballot language can result in significantly different methods.
This is an issue I haven't seen addressed very much on this list.

-Ralph Suter