<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>I recently conducted a vote under the Schwartz method. It produced a result that is counterintuitive and that I don’t know how to justify.</div><div><br></div><div>Here’s a simplified version of the scenario:</div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'"><b> 5x A > M1 = M2 > B</b></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'"><b> 3x B > A > M1 = M2</b></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'"><b> 2x M1 = M2 > B > A</b></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'"><b> 2x M1 > M2 > B > A</b></font></div><div><br></div><div>The partial ordering produced by the Schulze method has <b>A</b> beating everybody else, <b>B</b> losing to everybody else, and <b>M1</b> and <b>M2</b> “tied” in the middle:</div><div><br></div><blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div><img id="fee467e3-4091-4454-a477-90ef7a9c6033" height="203" width="158" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:A61DABE0-9329-4A8F-8C2E-9E89781459A1@tc.ph.cox.net"></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The question regards the clone pair <b>(M1, M2)</b>. Why shouldn’t <b>M1</b> be a winner over <b>M2</b>? Nobody would object to that. Some voters would prefer it, and the rest don’t care one way or the other. </div><div><br></div><div>I don’t know how to explain to the voters who prefer <b>M1</b> over <b>M2</b> why their preference shouldn’t be reflected in the results when nobody disagrees with it.</div></body></html>