[EM] Open letter to STAR voting promoters

[Toby Pereira]

 I think it does make common sense that rated ballots are easier to fill out above a certain number of candidates. I think some people may have previously cited some studies, but just from the common sense view, I think I would find it easier to rate with more than a handful of candidates. I was watching the Eurovision Song Contest last month, and gave the songs scores out of 10. It would have been way too much effort to rank all 25 or so songs. With scores, you can just work your way down the list (perhaps after identifying your favourite and least favourite to calibrate your scale), whereas with ranking, you have to do them in order with the potential risk of missing one out and messing it up.
But as has been said by Lime, this is a very different matter from whether you actually use the numerical values of the scores. You can just infer the rankings from them and run a Condorcet method if you so wish.
Toby
    On Tuesday 4 June 2024 at 18:12:19 BST, robert bristow-johnson <rbj at audioimagination.com> wrote:  
 
 > They are easier to fill out.

That's horseshit.  Requires voters to not only say who they prefer over the others, but then they have to figure out *how* *much* they prefer that candidate over the others and then they have to figure out whether or not they're shooting themselves in the foot by ranking some second-choice (or lesser evil) higher or lower.  In any Cardinal system and whenever there are 3 or more candidates (especially if they are non-trivial candidates), the voter is faced with the decision of how much to score (or whether to approve) their second-choice (or lesser evil) candidate.  Score them too high and you hurt your favorite.  Score too low and you help your greater evil.

You CES guys keep repeating this falsehood with ***zero*** evidence.  And it doesn't even make common sense.  
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