[EM] Approval vs. IRV

[Kathy Dopp]

 Nov 2011 23:05:49 -0700
> From: matt welland <matt at kiatoa.com>

> I wasn't clear. I want to hear opinions from the list: Is approval
> better or worse than IRV and why?

Approval is a far superior system to FPTP and IRV because approval:

1. unlike FPTP and IRV, it solves the spoiler problem of a nonwinning
candidate altering who would otherwise win;

2. unlike IRV, it is precinct-summable and easy to manually
statistically audit for accuracy and so preserves or allows for
timely, understandable, election accuracy verification;

3. unlike IRV, it looks at all the candidate choices of all voters,
thus treating all voters' votes equally and fairly and is thus
monotonic;

4. unlike IRV, it is simple to implement using the same ballot style
as FPTP, with a fairly simple programming change in the tally program;

5. unlike IRV, it preserves the rights of voters to have their votes
counted fairly and equally with other voters and to participate in the
final counting rounds (final decision-making process);

6.  unlike IRV, It is very simple for voters to figure out how to best
strategize (i.e. for single-winner elections, If your favorite
candidate is one of the top-two most likely vote-getters, bullet vote.
Otherwise, vote for both your favorite(s) and one of the likely
top-two vote getters. In other words, the simple principle is that a
vote for your 2nd choice candidate may cause the 2nd choice, rather
than your 1st choice candidate to win, so vote for a 2nd, 3rd,...
choice if you don't mind them winning the contest.)

7,  unlike IRV, it increases the chances of a popular 3rd party
candidate winning rather than being a system for keeping the smaller
party candidates from interfering with the 2 major parties (true once
people figure out how to strategize with IRV by ranking one of the 2
major party candidates 1st)

In other words, approval voting is administratively, educationally,
and technically simple and equitable, and thus doable - and unlike IRV
actually makes substantial improvements over FPTP because it solves
the spoiler problem and does not create nonmonotonicity and huge
administrative, technical, auditability and other practical problems.


-- 

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."
"Renewable energy is homeland security."

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

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