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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">
      <div dir="ltr">
        <div>
          <div style="font-size:12.8px">
            <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">
              <div
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                web",sans-serif">
                <div
class="gmail-m_-6388130383122563990gmail-m_-4121972656781124150gmail-separator"
style="box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;text-align:center"><font
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href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zufbCki-BVo/V_o1-OKl27I/AAAAAAAAASM/vrix1OAitpsQ4MhGoPunWk38sNcWu-qPwCLcB/s1600/rcv%2Bballot.png"
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class="gmail-m_-6388130383122563990gmail-CToWUd gmail-CToWUd"
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                          middle; padding: 5px; background-image:
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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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