[EM] Trunaction (was re: Defeat Strength)

[Colin Champion]

On 09/09/2022 10:31, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
>
> For truncation in particular, I think equal last means that unranked 
> candidates provides information to the method that the voter desired 
> those candidates to be considered worse than everybody else, while "I 
> don't know" indicates that the voting method shouldn't care at all.
>
I don’t agree with Kristofer's statement. A voter Veronica goes to the 
ballot box with a set of opinions. These include judgements ("I prefer A 
to B") and ignorance ("I know nothing about D"). If she is honest, she 
will fill in the ballot in the way which best represents her opinions. 
She may do so erroneously if she doesn't understand the system or lazily 
if it's easier to say one thing than another,
    The only legitimate meaning of a ballot is the set of opinions it 
might honestly express. If Veronica likes A, hates C, has mixed feelings 
about B and knows nothing about D, E, and F, then she will fill in her 
ballot paper in a certain way; and complete ignorance of D, E and F has 
to be accepted as a possible meaning of a ballot filled in in this way. 
If you insist on understanding her as disliking D, E, and F, you distort 
the meaning of her vote. So how is she meant to vote, given her 
opinions, if the ballot paper allows no form of tie besides truncation? 
She could vote A>B>C, or A>B, or just A, but none of these is 
interpreted by Kristofer in a way that's faithful to her opinions.
    CJC
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