<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV><BR>Chris Benham wrote:<BR>> I have an idea for a FBC complying method that I think is clearly<BR>> better than the version of "Range Voting" (aka Average Rating or<BR>> Cardinal Ratings) defined and promoted by CRV.<BR>> <BR>> <A href="http://rangevoting.org/" target=_blank>http://rangevoting.org/</A><BR>> <BR>> I suggest that voters use multi-slot ratings ballots that have the bottom<BR>> slots (at least 2 and not more than half) clearly labelled as expressing<BR>> "disapproval" and all others as expressing "Approval". The default<BR>> rating is the bottom-most.<BR>> <BR>> Compute each candidate X's Approval score and also "Approval<BR>> Opposition" score (the
approval score of the most approved candidate<BR>> on ballots that don't approve X).<BR>> <BR>> All candidates whose approval score is exceeded by their approval<BR>> opposition (AO) score are disqualified. Elect the undisqualified<BR>> candidate that is highest ordered by Average Rating.<BR>> <BR>> I suggest many fewer slots than 99 and no "no opinion" option, so I<BR>> think the resulting method is not more complex for voters.<BR><BR><BR>Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote (Monday, 29 September, 2008):<BR>"One way of making it less complex would be to have a cardinal ratings <BR>(Range) ballot with both positive and negative integers. The voter rates <BR>every candidate, and those candidates that get below zero points are <BR>considered disapproved, while those that get above zero are considered <BR>approved. This idea doesn't specify where those rated at zero (or those <BR>not rated at all) would
appear."</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR>Yes. I suggest that those "not rated" should be interpreted as disapproved<BR>and bottom-most rated. Those candidates rated "zero" should be considered</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">to be half-approved. Candidate X's approval opposition to Y should be X's approval<BR>score (including of course the half-approvals) plus half X's approval score (likewise)<BR>on ballots that rate Y zero. Y's "Approval Oppostion" score refers to Y's <BR>maximum approval opposition score from any X.<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">"Normalization could be used if required, with either the voter <BR>specifying "absolutely worst" and "absolutely best" (setting the range), <BR>or by the lowest and highest rated candidate having those positions. So <BR>if a voter wants to say that he likes all the candidates, but some are <BR>better than others, he could vote all positive integers, whereas a <BR>McCain/Obama/Clinton voter could vote McCain less than zero and the <BR>other two greater than zero. With normalization, the contribution of<BR><BR>A: 1 pts.<BR>B: -1 pts.<BR><BR>to the raw scores would be the same as<BR><BR>A: 3 pts.<BR>B: 1 pt.<BR><BR>but would have a different effect regarding the approval component (only <BR>A approved in the first case, both approved in the second)."</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">I don't think I'm that keen on "normalization", but I don't really object to</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">'automating' the approval cutoff, so that ballots are interpreted as approving</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">the candidates they rate above the mean of the ratings they've given (and<BR>half-approving those exactly at that mean). I can imagine that others would<BR>object on various grounds, and the US voting reform enthusiasts who like</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">FBC-complying methods like Range and Approval generally seem to prefer </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">their voting methods to have 'manual transmission'.<BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Chris Benham<BR></DIV></DIV></div><br>
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