[EM] Bucklin variant, and in general

[Kevin Venzke]

Hi Jameson,

--- En date de : Lun 21.2.11, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com> a écrit :
>If you knew your candidate was not A, though, you are guaranteed that your 
>second-place votes will count, perhaps against your first-place one.

This is actually not different from Bucklin. Just replace "was not A"
with "will not have majority on the first slot." The difference is that
in Bucklin *every* voter has this problem.

The strategic problem I see with my variant is that non-A voters will
have incentive to bury A to get A voters to reveal preferences. But if
the A's don't have any preferences to reveal, the strategy backfires.
This is a bit similar to your concern that A will be unable to get second
prefs from other factions. Factions declining to vote for A would have
to believe that A voters have second preferences to give them.

I am suspicious that if rated Bucklin (the best kind I think) lacked
utility-like numbers on the ballot, it would not make sense. Here is an
analogy: The polls are open all day. You can continually go back to the
polls to add more preferences. If majority is reached, the election will
end. Otherwise you will have to wait until the end of the day for the
result. So, at 7AM I go in and cast my first preference(s). The question
then is at *what time* should I add more preferences? At 9AM I have no 
additional information except that the method has not ended. Should I
rely on pre-election polls for this? I.e. did we tell the media, I'll
get nervous at 2PM and vote for another candidate? If so why did I pick
*that* time? Wouldn't that just be based on what I heard other people say
they were going to do, i.e.: we're making decisions in circles and it's
not based on anything?

I can just picture the poor fool who keeps adding votes throughout the
day and then, when polls close, his original first choice is the winner.
Should he be shocked?

Kevin