[EM] Declaration of Election-Method Experts and Enthusiasts: final stretch

[Dave Ketchum]

Noise, but possibly worth a response.

In writing about a Condorcet race the standard format seems to be A>X>Y.

For voting the ballot format seems to be to be able to assign rank  
numbers to as many of the candidates as the voter chooses.

In reporting election results the n*n matrix has findable values for  
each pair of candidates.

Robert calls the format he has seen for the matrix "silly", and  
suggests another format.

The reporting is a human readable copy of what is being computed -  
with the computing almost certainly done by computer if many  
candidates.  Therefore a reporting format such as Robert's would be  
usable if humans could agree - or even have selectable choices of  
formats if enough desire.

Dave Ketchum

On Sep 7, 2011, at 1:12 AM, robert bristow-johnson wrote:

>
> still not sure of the efficacy of trying to persuade voters (or  
> their elected representatives) to try out different ballot formats  
> than ranked choice but...
>
>
> "... The n*n matrix used in Condorcet has information useful to  
> those wanting to learn more about relationship of candidates. ..."
>
> why, oh why, are all of you election method experts stuck on that  
> silly n x n matrix geometry (where the main diagonal has no  
> information you have to associate one number on the lower left with  
> another number on the upper right, and it isn't obvious which number  
> goes with which candidate) instead of grouping the pairwise totals  
> *in* *pairs*???   like
>
>
>   A  56
>   B  44
>
>   A  88       B  65
>   C  12       C  35
>
>   A  90       B  82       C  55
>   D  10       D  18       D  45
>
>
> THAT format is where you have useful information about the  
> relationships between candidates at a glance.
>
> if we're gonna tell people about Condorcet, why are we putting it in  
> a stupid rectangular array where it is difficult to tell who beat  
> who?  it only makes it harder to sell this to skeptics.
>
> -- 
>
> r b-j                  rbj at audioimagination.com
>
> "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
>
>
>
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for  
> list info