[Election-Methods] Bullet Voting in the wider media

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Oct 7, 2007, at 5:01 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:

> At 11:53 AM 10/7/2007, Brian Olson wrote:
>> In case anyone's interested in what the general public are hearing
>> about voting strategy.
>>
>> http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/07/ 
>> ballot_query_to_bullet_or_not_to_bullet
>
> I fixed the link, hopefully, so it should work unless it gets split  
> again.
>
> The article seemed pretty good. Bullet Voting is a choice that voters
> can legitimately make. It is not "insincere", practically by  
> definition.

It may be worth noting (it goes without saying in the US) that the  
article is referring to n-seat plurality elections ("vote for no more  
than n" and top n win). It's used for city councils, county and  
school boards, etc.

The term "insincere" is an unfortunate shorthand for something other  
than the usual dictionary meaning. In this form of election, I take  
it to mean voting, for strategic reasons, for other than the voter's  
n favorite candidates, assuming that the voter approves of at least n  
candidates for the office. In this case, it's the vote that would be  
cast by a dictator.

"Insincere" is an unfortunate choice of terminology because the voter  
here is not, of course, a dictator, and is morally entitled (that is,  
in no sense blameworthy) to vote strategically to maximize the  
chances of a favorite candidate, if there is one. The fault lies in  
the voting method that obliges the voter to express something other  
than the "ideal" outcome.

To beat the point over the head, if candidates A B C D E are running  
for three seats, and my ideal result is A B C, but I prefer A so  
strongly that I'd prefer A D E to any result without A, then bullet- 
voting ("plumping") for A makes strategic sense, even though it means  
withholding my votes from B and C, whom I would also like to see  
elected (along with A) if possible. It's not insincere in the  
blameworthy sense, but it's "insincere" in the election-methods  
sense, according to me.

We should have another name for it.