[Election-Methods] RELEASE: Instant Runoff Voting - Not What It Seems

[Chris Benham]

Hello,
Continuing my commentry on Kathy Dopp's anti-IRV paper, under
"Flaws of  Instant Runoff  Voting" we find:
"13. 
voters may not be allowed to participate in the final selection round of an IRV election
because all their choices were eliminated before the last counting round."

The only way voters  may "not be allowed to participate in the final selection round
of an IRV election" is if  they are restricted from ranking  as many candidates as they
wish, a restriction that I strongly oppose (and doesn't exist in Australia).

Presumably Kathy thinks it is a bad thing that some voters aren't allowed to participate
in the final IRV selection round, so we can logically infer that Kathy prefers IRV with
unrestricted ranking to IRV with restricted ranking, right?  Wrong. Further down the
paper she writes:"Restricting the ranking depth of ranked choice ballots could improve IRV methods
by reducing noise and making it easier for voters."

Kathy, your hero Abd ul Lomax disagrees! He recently wrote:
"If you are going to use a preferential ballot, with STV as the method, allowing full ranking is important."

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RangeVoting/message/8276

"STV" stands for  'Single Transferable Vote'.  IRV  is single-winner STV.

Chris BenhamNot all voters or ballots are treated equally: Unlike with actual runoff elections, some IRV


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