[EM] Remember toby

[Kathy Dopp]

> Date: Sun, 29 May 2011 23:41:47 +0100 (BST)
> From: Kevin Venzke <stepjak at yahoo.fr>
> To: election-methods at electorama.com
> Subject: Re: [EM] Remember toby KD
>> Kevin,
>>
>> Could you please explain in fairly simple terms how
>> Condorcet/Approval works?
>>
>
> The way it works is that the voters will submit rankings. Anybody who
> is ranked is considered approved. (I strongly recommend against making
> approval something that is explicitly marked. If people want a method
> like that, don't use this one.)
>
> We will check to see whether there is a Condorcet winner. If there is,
> he wins. That's phase 1.
>
> If there's not, the approval winner wins. All rankings count exactly the
> same, as one vote. I.e. everybody you gave any ranking to is getting 1
> approval point from your ballot.
>
> It is possible to limit the approval phase to candidates who are in the
> Smith or Schwartz sets, but I'm not too concerned about that personally.
>
> The most obvious downside to C//A is that, since phase 2 levels all
> your rankings, the later-no-harm failures are worse: You are more likely
> to regret ranking more candidates. This is like Approval of course.
>
> But the phase 2 leveling (that is to say, the approval part) is also
> why burial is deterred: It's undesirable to vote for candidates you don't
> actually like, because you will be stuck voting for them (equal to
> your favorites) if you succeed in forcing the method into phase 2 (which
> would be the goal of burial).
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Kevin
>

Thanks Kevin,  I like the simplicity of that plan -- Condorcet/Approval.

Have you thought about only counting the first two rank ballot choices
of voters if the Approval step becomes necessary due to a Condorcet
cycle?  With only three ballot positions in the US I wonder if some
voters might rank their last choice third and not really understand
they were "approving" that candidate?

-- 

Kathy Dopp
http://electionmathematics.org
Town of Colonie, NY 12304
"One of the best ways to keep any conversation civil is to support the
discussion with true facts."

Fundamentals of Verifiable Elections
http://kathydopp.com/wordpress/?p=174

Realities Mar Instant Runoff Voting
http://electionmathematics.org/ucvAnalysis/US/RCV-IRV/InstantRunoffVotingFlaws.pdf

View some of my research on my SSRN Author page:
http://ssrn.com/author=1451051