[Election-Methods] RELEASE: Instant Runoff Voting (Chris Benham)

[Juho]

On Jun 26, 2008, at 0:54 , Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:

>> Note that the utilities of B and C were 123 and 99. I didn't anchor
>> the scale in any way but numbers around 100 could still be "above
>> average politician".
>
> "Above average" among what sample? Certainly not this one!

The sample was the politicians of your country (+ other candidates).  
Maybe their utility is typically around 30. (Utility 543 was possibly  
for yourself or your friend.)

>> I think three frontrunners is not a very distant scenario. I also
>> think spoilers are quite possible in Range and Approval. Some spoiler
>> scenarios were already mentioned in this thread. You also already
>> replied to Chris Benham on the McCain-Obama-Clinton example in
>> another mail (and therefore I'll try to be brief here).
>
> While three frontrunners is certainly possible in theory, it's rare  
> in a two-party system, it happens in certain ways.

But I assume the idea was to enrich the typical "two parties, two  
candidates and minor spoilers" set-up. If the small party candidates  
will stay minor candidates with no chances of being elected forever  
then we could use e.g. a method where the ballot has first one  
option, D or R, and then a write-in field where you can write any  
minor candidate name (or several) but that field will be ignored in  
the counting process. I mean that there must be at least three viable  
candidates in some elections if any any of the minor candidates are  
ever expected to raise from the "joke category" upwards (well, unless  
the changes always happen so quickly that the old leading candidates/ 
parties are already at the "joke category" at the time of the election.)

Juho





		
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