[EM] Approval reducing to Plurality

[robert bristow-johnson]

On Aug 31, 2010, at 4:03 PM, Raph Frank wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 11:08 AM, Juho <juho4880 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> The serious problems of Approval come into play only when there are  
>> more
>> than two potential winners. As long as T1 and T2 are called "T" (i.e.
>> "minor") things are fine.
>
> I disagree.  However, we don't really know the how the mechanics of
> approval will work out in practice.
>
> I think that it would allow a little utility weighting to come into
> it.  Voters who see two candidates as being almost identical would
> probably just approve both.

i can confess that i am currently planning to bullet two (out of about  
20, with limit 6) candidates this November in this virtual approval  
election of state senators.  the candidates are clearly different, but  
i like them both.  neither are incumbent.  there are two "open" seats  
and 3 credible non-incumbents to fill them.  so it's kinda like  
musical chairs.

and my worry is that voting for one will harm the other.

> It is like condorcet with a slight utility bias.

what's the utility?  that it's easy to understand?  or something else?

--

r b-j                  rbj at audioimagination.com

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."