[EM] Strategic vs Dishonest

[Forest Simmons]

I know this is picky semantics to some people, but to me strategic voting
does not imply dishonest voting. Is Approval voting dishonest? It certainly
requires some kind of strategy. Suppose that your sincere preference is A>B
but optimal strategy leads you to approve B but not A.... does following
that strategy make you into a dishonest person? I would call it insincere
strategy but wouldn't go so far as to call it dishonest. Does voting for a
lesser evil make you dishonest? Are poker players who bluff dishonest? Not
in my opinion because bluffing is a premise of the game.

On the other hand false witness ... smearing or telling lies about a
candidate? Or false reporting of actual or fake polls? Or unilateral
defection from an agreement? To me that crosses the line!

So one set of strategic ballots to decide who the finalists will be, and
another to choose between them ... no dishonesty in my book, even if the
first set of ballots elicits insincere strategy as expected. If you took an
oath promising to use only sincere strategy, that might be a different
story,  unless the oath was under extreme duress!

So let's not be too quick to use the judgmental term "dishonest" when a
softer term "insincere" will do.

Just my opinion about shades of traditional English usage of these terms!
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