[EM] Why I think IRV isn't a serious alternative

[Greg Dennis]

> Greg demands real-life examples with complete ballot data
> when someone wants to argue that IRV sometimes performs
> worse than Condorcet voting. Therefore, it is only fair
> when also Condorcet supporters demand real-life examples
> with complete ballot data.
>
> Markus Schulze

While complete ballot data is ideal, I think a convincing case as to
how a voting method might perform in a particular election can
sometimes be made from polling data. For example, there's good exit
polling data for the Senate race in Minnesota that's being recounted,
showing that supporters of the Independence party candidate would have
preferred Al Franken over Norm Coleman by a 5% margin. That would have
given Franken at least another 20,000 votes, way more than the 215
votes he trailed by pre-recount. I think that's a pretty good case
that IRV would have selected Franken, regardless of the results of the
plurality recount.