[EM] IRV vs RCV

[VoteFair]

I just edited the Wikipedia page named "Ranked voting" to clarify that 
it refers to using ranked ballots.  That's an edit that was already 
discussed on the "talk" page for that article.  Previously the article 
almost looked like a promo for Ranked Choice voting.

I don't like FairVote using the name "Ranked Choice voting," yet 
fighting that name seems wasteful.

Instead I tell people we needed "ranked ballots and pairwise counting." 
That separation of ballot type from counting method seems to help people 
understand that ranked ballots can be counted in more than one way -- 
which is a point that's now stated in the "Ranked voting" Wikipedia article.

The article still needs further work, such as filling in the Condorcet 
section, so anyone is welcome to improve it.  (I'm juggling multiple 
projects so I just fixed the biggest problem.)

Richard Fobes

On 12/13/2019 8:39 PM, Rob Lanphier wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> This morning, I updated the FairVote page on Electowiki:
> <https://electowiki.org/wiki/FairVote>
>
> ...which was an updated copy of the intro from the Wikipedia article
> about FairVote.   They changed their name in 2004 (from Center for
> Voting and Democracy), and it's about time we finally updated
> Electowiki to reflect that.
>
> However, one line got under my skin:
>> "in 2004 changed its name to FairVote to reflect its support of such platforms as ranked choice voting (RCV),"
>
> Well, there's a lot of good reasons for them to change their name, but
> reflecting their support for "ranked choice voting" seemed revisionist
> to me.  So I disappeared down a rabbit hole to make my edits to the
> Electowiki version.
>
> If you're interested in the details, I encourage you to read my longer
> history on Electowiki, but here's the abbreviated timeline:
> * 1992 - "Center for Proportional Representation" (CPR) is formed
> * 1993 - CPR changes its name to "Center for Voting and Democracy" (CVD)
> * 1993 - Report published, calling it "preference voting" (in a nod to
> Australia)
> * 1997 - first use of "Instant Runoff voting" that I could find
> * 2000 - http://fairvote.org/irv URL goes live on CVD's website
> * 2004 - CVD changes its name to "FairVote"
> * 2006 - http://fairvote.org/rcv URL goes live on FairVote's website,
> in cooperation with the Arizona League of Women Voters
> * 2013 - FairVote starts referring to IRV primarily as "Ranked Choice Votting"
>
> What happened between 2006 and 2013 is left as an exercise for the reader.
>
> At any rate: is this a problem worth worrying about?  Should we just
> do what all of the cool kids are doing, and start referring to it as
> "Ranked Choice Voting"?  I mean, come on, Jennifer Lawrence and Krist
> Novaselic are on board (ok, since Jennifer Lawrence was born in the
> 90s, I have no problem referring to her as a "kid", but Krist
> Novoselic is older than I am, so should I be respecting my elders?)
>
> Rob
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