[Election-Methods] IRV as "contingency" method - still can be viewed as unequal treatement of voters

[James Gilmour]

Warren Smith  > Sent: 27 December 2007 21:14
> The difficulty with Gilmour's "contingency" view is that some 
> contingencies are a lot more likely to arise than others.

"Contingency" is not Gilmour's view  - it is a fact.  An IRV election is an exhaustive ballot (elimination of the one lowest
candidate at a time) recorded in one event.  So just as at an exhaustive ballot, you get to reallocate your vote (successively) in
the contingency that your then most preferred candidate is eliminated, so the preferences on an IRV ballot are contingency choices
recorded for the same purposes.

Of course, there are defects and deficiencies in IRV (as there are in all voting systems), but those are no different from the
exhaustive ballot.

James Gilmour

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