[EM] Vindication

[Forest Simmons]

Kristofer,

This elimination method helps to explain the "unreasonable effectiveness"
of what we have been calling Max X>Y.

While there remains no unbeaten candidate among the uneliminated...
"vindicate" the victor X and eliminate the loser Y in the strongest
paireise defeat.

Vindication of X is executed by raising X to the level of Y on any ballot
that (misguidedly) ranked Y above X, before eliminating Y.

We say "misguidedly" because X was already ranked above or equal to Y on
the greatest majority of ballots.

So vindication is a new kind of vote transfer that applies when the
strongest (remaining) defeat brings about the elimination.

In the case of three candidates, that kind of vote transfer will be
sufficient to turn X into a majority winner ... and in general, will likely
change the strongest victor into an undefeated candidate.

Example

49 C
26 A>B
25 B

If we measure defeat strength by Winning Votes + Losing Truncations, we see
that the defeat of A by C is strongest: WV+LT = 49+74 = 173.

Vindication updates the ballot profile as

49 C
26 C>B
25 B

So C now defeats B 75 to 25!

Try this out on your favorite ballot profiles, and see if you like it.

fws
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