[EM] Voting by selecting a published ordering

[Dave Ketchum]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 11:04:04 -0700 Simmons, Forest wrote:

> Steve Eppley suggested allowing voters to choose from published orderings and then doing the tally by
> 
> "... a good voting method, such as Maximize Affirmed Majorities (MAM)."
> 
> Here's a suggestion for an easy-to-understand alternative to MAM that would be adequate in this context:


I am looking at this without looking at MAM.

> 
> In the case that the most popular ordering is complete, start at the bottom of that ordering and use the "Winner Stays" rule.  In other words, of the bottom two alternatives on the most popular list, the one that is ranked ahead of the other on more ballots than not is kept, and the other is eliminated.  This elimination rule is repeatedly applied among the remaining alternatives until only one candidate (the method winner) remains.


Looking much like Condorcet.  From there we know that cycles can occur, 
needing more thought here.

> 
> If the most popular order is not complete, then refine it using the order that is second in popularity, then third in popularity, etc.
> 
> Note that Eppley's suggestion (in its simplest forms) requires only a standard plurality style ballot, and each voter marks only one alternative (a candidate's name or a code word for somebody else's published ordering).


Starts out looking good but, how many lists might there be with half a 
dozen candidates?
      What would this quantity do to the voting machine?
      How much might this confuse the voter looking for an acceptable list?

>  
> This is exactly the kind of simplicity that we need to get a viable improvement over plurality for public elections.


Sounds like as much trouble as Condorcet and in counting complexity, 
though doable with present voting machines - provided they can tolerable 
the number of choices.

>  
> Forest
> 
>     
> 
> 
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  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
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