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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><font size="+1">Jeff,</font><br>
<br>
<font size="+1">IRV's compliance with the Later-no-Harm criterion
is a nice selling point aimed at nervous or sceptical voters <br>
who are used to and content with FPP, but I think it is far
from the method's greatest feature.<br>
<br>
If voters who only care about their favourites can influence the
fate of other candidates without any risk at all, <br>
that encourages them to express very weak light-minded
preferences and/or to blindly go along with preference<br>
deals that might be corrupt or cynical and unprincipled.<br>
<br>
IRV also meets Later-no-Help, which I think is a very good
thing. And I rate IRV as the best of the methods that meet it.<br>
<br>
Some weak truncation incentive is desirable, but Approval's is
far too strong. </font><br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><font color="#000000" size="+1">Where
there are more viable candidates, the cognitive burden is much
higher. The French 2012 elections for President had <span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">ten candidates</span> in
the first round. A voter thus needed to consider which
candidates had a chance of winning, and then select her
favorite among those who had a chance of winning.</font></blockquote>
<br>
<font size="+1">A more devious strategy may be available. If the
voter is sure that, among the candidates with some chance of
winning, her favourite will<br>
make it to the final without her help, then she can vote for the
candidate that (among those with some chance of making it to the
top-2)<br>
that her favourite would have the greatest chance of beating in
the second round.<br>
<br>
That is called the Push-over strategy. <br>
<br>
A while ago I suggested that one way to improve Top-Two Runoff
would be to use Approval in the first round, and if the most
approved<br>
candidate A isn't approved on more than half the ballots in the
first round then have a second-round runoff between A and the
candidate<br>
with the most approval-opposition to A (i.e. the candidate that
is most approved on ballots that didn't approve A.)</font><br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><font color="#000000" size="+1">I want to
briefly address another form of ranked voting called Condorcet
voting. Condorcet voting also uses a ranked ballot, but the
votes are counted in a different way. <br>
</font><font color="#000000" size="+1"> While Condorcet voting
is a great voting method, ...</font><br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="+1">"Condorcet voting" isn't decisive enough to
qualify as a "voting method". Condorcet is just a criterion (or
a category of methods that meet the criterion).<br>
<br>
Min-Max Margins, Schulze (Winning Votes), Smith//Approval,
"Benham" (check for a CW among remaining candidates before each
IRV-style elimination)<br>
are all very different methods that happen to meet the Condorcet
criterion.<br>
</font><br>
<font size="+1">Chris Benham<br>
</font><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/11/2016 11:24 PM, Jeff O'Neill wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAAGcOeUehy8CiJT76X60cxxjZ36GfLhnJDBZC_pGHFHkbeRgXw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">I recently wrote a blog post explaining why I
prefer ranked-choice voting (i.e., IRV or alternative
vote) to approval voting. It is a quite different kind
of argument than most of the posts here because it is a
policy argument rather than a mathematical one.
Nevertheless, I thought people here might find it
interesting. I'd love to hear your comments and any
counterarguments as well.</font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font style="font-size:12.8px"
color="#000000" size="+1">I've copied the post below and
you can also find it</font><font size="+1"><span
style="font-size:12.8px;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> here: </span><br>
</font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blog.opavote.com/2016/10/why-i-prefer-ranked-choice-voting-to.html"
target="_blank">http://blog.opavote.com/<wbr>2016/10/why-i-prefer-ranked-<wbr>choice-voting-to.html</a></font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px"><font size="+1"><span
style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:large;font-family:"titillium
web",sans-serif">Why I prefer ranked-choice
voting to approval voting</span><br>
</font></div>
<div style="font-size:12.8px">
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<font color="#000000" size="+1">Voting is not an easy
task for a voter. I don't mean taking time off work,
getting to the polls, and waiting in line, etc. I
mean, when you are standing there in the ballot box,
you have to decide what vote you want to cast given
the options presented to you. For example, a Jill
Stein supporter may be torn between supporting her
favorite candidate and voting for a candidate who has
a better chance of winning the election. I'll refer
to this as the <i style="box-sizing:border-box">cognitive
burden</i> of expressing your vote.<br
style="box-sizing:border-box">
<br style="box-sizing:border-box">
In this post, I'll address the cognitive burden of
three different types of voting:<br
style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font>
<ol
style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Plurality voting (i.e.,
selecting one candidate)</font></li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Approval Voting</font></li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Ranked-choice voting</font></li>
</ol>
<font color="#000000" size="+1"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.opavote.com/" target="_blank"
style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none">OpaVote</a> supports
all three of these voting methods if you want to try
them out yourself.<br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font>
<h2 style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px
10px;font-family:inherit;line-height:1.1"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Plurality Voting</font></h2>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Plurality voting is very simple, a voter
simply picks one candidate. There is, however, a
cognitive burden when there are more than two
candidates. A voter presumably wants her vote to
matter. Accordingly, a voter should not necessarily
select her favorite candidate, but instead select
her favorite candidate who has a reasonable chance
of being elected.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Consider the current U.S. Presidential
election. I'm a big supporter of the Green Party,
but Jill Stein is not going to win the election.
I'd like to vote for the Green Party, but instead
I'll vote for Hillary because that is the best way
for my vote to make a difference. Others will vote
for the Green Party out of principle.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Where there are more viable candidates,
the cognitive burden is much higher. The French
2012 elections for President had <span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">ten
candidates</span> in the first round. A voter
thus needed to consider which candidates had a
chance of winning, and then select her favorite
among those who had a chance of winning.</font></div>
<h2 style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px
10px;font-family:inherit;line-height:1.1"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Approval Voting</font></h2>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">With approval voting, a voter has the
option to approve as many candidates as they like.
The candidate with the most approvals is the winner.
For someone whose first choice is Jill, the voter
may, for example, approve of Jill and Hillary and
not approve Donald and Gary.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Approval voting, like plurality voting, is
very simple in practice. A voter just selects one
or more candidates. But Approval voting suffers
from similar cognitive burdens as plurality voting.
How do you draw the line between candidates you
approve and candidates you don't approve? </font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Consider a voter whose true preferences
are: </font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box">
<ol
style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Jill Stein</font></li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Hillary Clinton</font></li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Gary Johnson</font></li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px
0.25em;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Donald Trump</font></li>
</ol>
<font color="#000000" size="+1">Clearly, this voter
will approve Jill and will not approve Donald, but
what should she do with the other two candidates?
Should she also approve Hillary? Giving Hillary an
approval may help Hillary beat Jill, but she would
certainly prefer Hillary to Gary or Donald.
Similarly, this voter may not like Gary, but she may
dislike Donald so much that it is worthwhile to
approve Gary to minimize the chance that Donald is
elected.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Phew... that is a lot of thinking to do.
It would be even harder if Jill and Gary had better
chances of being elected.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box">
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">In sum, approving any
candidates other than your favorite can hurt your
favorite. Not approving candidates can help your
least favorite get elected. Approval voting thus
creates a significant cognitive burden for voters.</font></div>
</div>
<h2 style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px
10px;font-family:inherit;line-height:1.1"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Ranked-Choice Voting</font></h2>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">With ranked-choice voting, a voter ranks
the candidates in order of preference, similar to
the picture above. In my view, this has the least
cognitive burden among the three methods discussed
here. It is easy for a voter to pick her favorite
candidate, pick her second favorite, and so on.
This kind of ballot has low cognitive burden because
a voter doesn't have to consider which candidates
are viable.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">But, you may ask, "Doesn't a voter have to
think about whether their second and later
preferences might hurt their first preference? For
example, should a Jill Stein supporter not rank
Hillary second because it might help Hillary beat
Jill?"</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">The great thing about ranked-choice voting
is that the answer to this question is a clear and
resounding<span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">NO!!!</span> Your
second and later choices cannot harm your first
choice! Your second preference is only ever
considered at all if your first preference has
definitively lost. Voting geeks cause this the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later-no-harm_criterion"
target="_blank"
style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none">later-no-harm
criterion</a>.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Voters thus need to be educated that later
choices do not hurt earlier choices so that voters
are encouraged to rank as many candidates as
possible. The more candidates a voter ranks, the
greater influence the voter has in the outcome of
the election.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Accordingly, ranked-choice voting has the
lowest cognitive burden. A voter simply needs to
select their first choice, second choice, and so
forth. The voter does not need to consider which
candidates are viable.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">(For voting geeks who are leaping out of
their seats to make points about other <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Voting_system_criteria"
target="_blank"
style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none">voting
systems criteria</a>, please keep reading.) </font></div>
<h2 style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px
10px;font-family:inherit;line-height:1.1"><font
color="#000000" size="+1">Other Stuff...</font></h2>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">In my view, it is extremely important to
make it as easy as possible for voters to vote, and,
for the reasons described above, ranked-choice
voting does this better than both plurality and
approval voting.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">I want to briefly address another form of
ranked voting called Condorcet voting. Condorcet
voting also uses a ranked ballot, but the votes are
counted in a different way. Condorcet voting
doesn't satisfy the later-no-harm criterion
mentioned above, so it is <span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">possible</span> that
your second and later choices could hurt your first
choices. The possibility, however, that your second
and later choices hurt your first choice is <span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">so
small</span> that, for <span
style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">practical
purposes</span>, a voter to cannot take this into
account, and thus Condorcet voting has the same
cognitive burden as ranked-choice voting. While
Condorcet voting is a great voting method, I still
prefer ranked-choice voting for public elections,
and I'll address that in a future blog post.</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1"><br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Another point to mention is that
detractors of ranked-choice voting complain that
ranked-choice voting does not satisfy other voting
systems criteria, such as the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonicity_criterion"
target="_blank"
style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none">monotonicity
criterion</a>. While this is certainly true, for
practical purposes, a voter cannot take the
monotonicity criterion into account when casting a
vote. It is just far too complicated and you would
need to know how everyone else is going to vote.
The non-monotonicity of ranked-choice voting thus
doesn't create a cognitive burden.<br
style="box-sizing:border-box">
<br style="box-sizing:border-box">
</font></div>
<div style="box-sizing:border-box"><font color="#000000"
size="+1">Please let me know what you think,
especially if you disagree. I am happy to post any
well-reasoned dissent as comments or even give you
the opportunity to write your own blog post in
rebuttal.</font></div>
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