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On 09/09/2022 10:31, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2656b1b1-0e3e-37c6-5011-ab990c0f9fe5@t-online.de"><br>
For truncation in particular, I think equal last means that
unranked candidates provides information to the method that the
voter desired those candidates to be considered worse than
everybody else, while "I don't know" indicates that the voting
method shouldn't care at all.
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">I don’t agree with
Kristofer's statement. A voter Veronica goes to the ballot box
with a set of opinions. These include judgements ("I prefer A to
B") and ignorance ("I know nothing about D"). If she is honest,
she will fill in the ballot in the way which best represents her
opinions. She may do so erroneously if she doesn't understand the
system or lazily if it's easier to say one thing than another, <br>
The only legitimate meaning of a ballot is the set of opinions
it might honestly express. If Veronica likes A, hates C, has mixed
feelings about B and knows nothing about D, E, and F, then she
will fill in her ballot paper in a certain way; and complete
ignorance of D, E and F has to be accepted as a possible meaning
of a ballot filled in in this way. If you insist on understanding
her as disliking D, E, and F, you distort the meaning of her vote.
So how is she meant to vote, given her opinions, if the ballot
paper allows no form of tie besides truncation? She could vote
A>B>C, or A>B, or just A, but none of these is
interpreted by Kristofer in a way that's faithful to her opinions.
<br>
CJC<br>
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