Folks,
A few days I posted a message about my new webpage at
http://electionmethods.org/Approval-formula.htm
which explains the "strategy" for deciding which candidates to approve in an Approval election. Originally this page had no derivation of the formula because it had already been derived and seemed so obvious anyway. However, I have since decided to to go ahead and derive it independently myself.
My derivation may (or may not) be original, but in any case I think it is more direct than the derivations I have seen. It does not involve any tie probabilities, for example. If the mathamatically minded among you would take a look at it, I would certainly appreciate any corrections or other feedback. Also, if you have seen this derivation elsewhere, please let me know and tell me where (if you remember).
I also made a few minor corrections. Deriving the formula makes you think about your assumptions, and I realized that the formula is based on an assumption that I had neglected to mention: that the number of voters is large.
Note to Mike: please do NOT reply to this message unless you READ the webpage completely.
--Russ ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
