[Election-Methods] IRV ballot is at least as fair as FPTP ballot

[Chris Benham]

Kathy Dopp wrote:
Wed Dec 26 15:41:47 PST 2007 

One problem is that my second choice candidate may be
eliminated in the first round and my first choice
candidate not have success either - despite the fact
that my second choice candidate is the most popular
among all voters.

For instance, this example, which is one of countably
infinite examples where IRV elects the candidate not
supported by most voters:

	Republican	Libertarian	Progressive	Democrat
1st choice	4	3	3	2
2nd choice	1	2	1	7
3rd choice	1	1	6	1


I.e. in this example with 12 voters, the Democrat
loses in the first round, even though the most number
of persons supported the Democrat overall - letting
the Republican win, even though the Republican (in
this example) is not as widely supported as to other 
candidates."

Kathy,
I would find your example much more comprehensible and
interesting if it was presented as an "election
profile" showing the voters' rankings, such as:

49:A
24:B
27:C>B

In your example it is quite possible that the
Republican is the sincere ratings winner, and also a
point scoring method such as you advocate could elect
the Republican if the arbitrary point schedule scores
"first choices" much higher than second and third
choices.

What point schedule appeals to you, and how do you
suggest truncation be handled?

Do you support Approval?

Chris Benham







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