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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>With your kind indulgence, I would like some assistance in understanding and hopefully mastering the various voting criteria, so that I can more intelligently and accurately understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different voting systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So, if it’s alright, I would like to explain what I understand about some of these voting criteria, a few at a time, perhaps, and perhaps the group would be willing to “check my math” as it were and see if I actually understand these, one by one?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I’ll start with what seem to be the simpler ones. (For what it’s worth, my understanding comes from various websites that do not always agree with each other. Also, I have the fundamental belief that one cannot consider oneself to have mastered something until and unless one has the ability to understand it well enough to explain it to someone else – which is what I will try to do below, re-explain these criteria as a test to see if I really get them.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Name</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: <b><u>Plurality<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Description</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: If A gets more “first preference” ballots than B, A must not lose to B.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thoughts</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: If I understand this correctly, this is not a critical criteria to my way of thinking. Consider an election with 10 candidates. A gets 13% of the first place votes, more than any other single candidate. And yet B gets 8% of the first place votes, and 46% of the second place votes. It seems obvious to me that B “ought” to win. And yet, in this circumstance, this violates the above Plurality Criterion. Therefor is seems to be that the Plurality Criterion is not useful, to my way of thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Name: <u>Majority</u><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Description</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: If one candidate is preferred by an absolute majority of voters, then that candidate must win.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thoughts</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: I might be missing something here, but this seems like a no-brainer. If over 50% of the voters want someone, they should get him, any other approach would seem to create minority rule? I guess a challenge to this criteria might be the following: using Range Voting, A gets a 90 range vote from 60 out of 100 voters, while B gets an 80 from 80 out of 100 voters. A’s net is 5400, but B’s net is 6400, so B would win (everyone else got less). Does this fail the Majority Criterion, because A got a higher vote from over half, or does it fulfill Majority because B’s net was greater than A’s net??<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Name: <u>Participation</u><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Description</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: If a ballot is added which prefers A to B, the addition of the ballot must not change the winner from A to B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thoughts</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: This seems to make sense. If we do not require this, then we permit voting systems where trying to vote sincerely harms your interests. Also, any voting system that would fail Participation would be I think fragile and react in not always predictable ways – like IRV. SO this seems to me to be a solid requirement, that I can’t imagine a system that failed this Criterion to have some other benefit so wonderful to make failing Participation worth overlooking – I cannot imagine it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Name: <u>Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA)</u><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Description</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: Adding a new candidate B to an election that previously A would have won must not cause anyone apart from A or B to win. That is, If A would have won before B was added to the ballot, C must not win now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thoughts</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: This also seems fairly non-controversial. This I think is the repudiation of the spoiler effect – that just because Nader enters the race shouldn’t disadvantage the candidate that would have won before that happened. This would seem (to me) to also be a good Criterion to hold to in order to encourage more than just two Candidates/Parties always dominating the scene. I wonder what the downside would be to strongly embracing this criteria?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Question</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: It seems to me that another criterion I have heard of – Independence of Clones(IoC) – is a subset of IIA, that if a system satisfies IIA, it would have to satisfy the Independence of Clones criterion as well – is that correct? If not, what system what satisfy IoC but *<b>not</b>* satisfy IIA?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Question</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: it seems like the two above criteria – Participation and IIA – would be related. Is it possible to fail one and not the other? Or does either wind up mandate the other – for example, a system with IIA must also fulfill Participation, or vice versa?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So let me stop there for now – I know there are other Criteria, but let me pause so you guys can tell me what I am getting right and what I am getting wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-ligatures:standard'>-Benn Grant<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-ligatures:standard'>eFix Computer Consulting<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-ligatures:standard'><a href="mailto:benn@4efix.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>benn@4efix.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-ligatures:standard'>603.283.6601</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>