<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif;font-size:13px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6141"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6180">Thank you for the clarification. Would you also consider ballots that rank/rate candidates equally to be irrelevant? For example, if A and B are the clear frontrunners anyway, and a ballot top rates or equal top ranks both candidates and doesn't mention any other candidates, would this be an irrelevant ballot?</span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6078"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6137" style="display: block;"> <blockquote id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6136" style="padding-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; margin-left: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6135" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6134" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6133" dir="ltr"> <font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6143" face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6142"> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> C.Benham <cbenham@adam.com.au><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> election-methods@lists.electorama.com <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, 9 November 2016, 5:28<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [EM] Irrelevant Ballots<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6138"><br><div id="yiv7083602108"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6140">
<div class="yiv7083602108moz-cite-prefix" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1478705300362_6139">Toby,<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
A while ago some-one coined the "Blank Ballots Criterion" that
just said that the result shouldn't change if we add (or remove)
some<br clear="none">
"blank ballots".<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
But it struck me that a method that breaches this in spirit would
usually meet the letter of it by simply refusing to count such
ballots<br clear="none">
as "valid".<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
So I coined "Irrelevant Ballots Independence" that just said that
if we add some ballots that do nothing but plump for some
candidate <br clear="none">
with fewer above-bottom votes than any other candidate and that is
ignored or not voted above bottom on all the other ballots then<br clear="none">
the result shouldn't change.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
It is failed by Bucklin and tends to be failed by methods that use
arbitrary percentage thresholds of all the valid ballots as part
of their<br clear="none">
algorithms.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Chris Benham<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
On 11/9/2016 8:20 AM, Toby Pereira wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv7083602108yqt6363353730" id="yiv7083602108yqt80454"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> I've noticed people
(mainly Chris Benham I think) talking about "irrelevant
ballots", and I just wanted to clear up the definition that
people use. My intuitive understanding is that a ballot is
irrelevant with respect to candidates A and B if it ranks/rates
them equally or doesn't rank/rate them at all. So if A is
elected over B then the addition or removal of any such ballots
would never cause B to be elected over A.</div></div>
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</div></div><br><div class="yqt6363353730" id="yqt01077">----<br clear="none">Election-Methods mailing list - see <a href="http://electorama.com/em" target="_blank" shape="rect">http://electorama.com/em </a>for list info<br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </blockquote> </div></div></body></html>