Forest Simmons wrote: >>I have a slight quibble with the phrase "ranked ballots." If you take it literally, it sounds like it is referring to a set of ballots that have somehow already been ranked relative to each other, instead of a set of ballots that can be used by voters to rank the candidates. [Compare the meaning of "ranked pairs."]
"Ranking ballots" would be more descriptive of the actual intent of the phrase. The "ing" ending has the additional advantage of reassuring us that the ballots are not pre-voted; the voter gets to fill them out.<< English is too flexible. I would interpret "ranked ballots" the way Forest described "ranking ballots." Quite literally, in either case what we're talking about is "ballots that rank candidates". This is what I've been trying to express. The counting methods DO "rank ballots" by ordering them by how many voters chose one particular ordered list of candidates over another. When someone writes: 40: A>B>C 35: B>A>C 25: C>A>B They have "ranked" three different ballot configurations based upon the fact that 40, 35, and 25 percent respectively of the voters have chosen these three of the six possible candidate orderings. What the voter does is rank CANDIDATES. The counting method "ranks ballots." ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
