Dear Adam, in my opinion, the used STV method should be able to interpret X-vote ballots appropriately. But it should not require X-vote ballots.
The problem with approval voting is that voters who don't have enough information will approve either all potential winners or no potential winner so that these voters will have no influence on the result of the elections. When ranking ballots are being used, then a voter can cast a meaningful ballot even when he has no information about the opinions of the other voters. Markus Schulze ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em