[EM] Ballot formats (Re: new simple legal strategy to get IRV)

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

On 10/10/2015 11:14 PM, robert bristow-johnson wrote:
> On 10/9/15 6:28 AM, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
>>
>> "Place a mark on the line corresponding to the rating you want to give.
>> Further to the right is better."
>>
>> Candidate 1   worst |-------------------------------------------| best
>>
>> Candidate 2   worst |-------------------------------------------| best
>>
>> Candidate 3   worst |-------------------------------------------| best
>>
>> Candidate 4   worst |-------------------------------------------| best
>> ...
>> Candidate n   worst |-------------------------------------------| best
> 
> Score Voting (a.k.a. Range Voting).  Warren Smith will like it.  it's
> what judges at the winter Olympics use for figure skating (and some
> other events).  but my question continues to be: "how highly do you
> score your second choice?"  and third choice?
> 
> (Condorcet is better.)

That's part of the reason I prefer median ratings, because there's much
less incentive to exaggerate.

But if you want Range and don't like strategy, there's always this
DSV variant Warren has referred to in the past.

1. Rearrange the ballots in random order and create a new Range election.
2. Go down the list from first to last ballot.
2.1. Making a transformed version of the current ballot according to the
best Range strategy given the ballots that have already been entered
into the Range election.
2.2. Entering the transformed copy into the election.
3. Note who wins this Range election, or alternately note the outcome
(total score for each).
4. Repeat from 1 a very large number of times.
5. Designate the candidate who won most often as the winner. Or
alternately, perform an ordinary Range election with each iteration's
outcome (from 3) as Range ballots.

The ballot format above could be used for rankings as well (if you're
willing to disregard equal rank) in the same way that you can turn any
rated ballot into a ranked ballot by sorting the candidates by their rating.