[EM] ranked pair method that resolves beat path ties.

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

robert bristow-johnson wrote:

> because *both* the winning votes is tied and the margins is tied.  what 
> else is there?
> 
> i wonder if it would be better to first rank each pair according to 
> Margins and then, in the case of tie of Margins, Winning Votes are used 
> to break the tie to determine which pair result has priority over the 
> other.
> 
> for some reason, i like Margins because it is the product of the percent 
> spread (which indicates how decisive a defeat is) times the number of 
> voters participating (which indicates how important the pair election 
> is).  that product is a natural measure for how important and decisive a 
> pairwise defeat is.  Winning Votes, all by itself, should not be the 
> sole (or primary in the present case) decider.  what if there is a lot 
> of voters, but the pair-election is close (say a defeat by 1 vote)?  
> it's not a decisive defeat, but Winning Votes would say it is.  i think 
> Margins is more salient than Winning Votes.

Note, though, that methods that do Margins first may violate the 
Plurality criterion. In other words, it may be the case that, in a 
Margins election, a candidate wins when some other candidate has more 
first place votes than the winner has any-place votes.