[EM] Voting reform statement

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Aug 15, 2011, at 7:09 AM, Jameson Quinn wrote:

> So, what do you think? Let the debate begin. I expect the above to be torn to shreds. But once it's starting to seem stable, I'll make a google doc out of it, so we can collaboratively polish up the language.
> 

Where you will lose many of us, I think, is in a flat endorsement of approval. The fundamental problem with approval voting is that, with more than two candidates, voting demands that the voter engage in strategic voting. That is, if my preference is A>B>C, then my decision whether to approve B cannot be made without strategizing. That flies in the face of your fine suggestion that strategy avoidance be an important criterion. 

(It's not an answer to say that approval strategy is "easy" or "obvious"; that's not the point, nor is it generally true, since it depends on having information not generally available about other voters' preferences and strategies.)

The problems of IRV are minor compared to approval (and any other rating-based system).

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