>Robla: However, the Condorcet winner criterion is quite easily and unambiguously applied to Range Voting ballots, since a ranked ballot can be easily derived from a Range Voting ballot.
--that isn't fair because a range voting ballot cannot be derived from a ranked ballot. This is a one-way noninvertible transformation. --as I described last post, the Condorcet winner criterion is quite easily seen NOT to be unambiguously applicable to Range Voting ballots, and you have to make a choice of definition. >robla: In fact, the Condorcet winner criterion has nothing to do with the ballots, and everything to do with the electorate. You only need to answer the question "if head-to-head elections are conducted among all of the candidates, is there a candidate that wins every election they are part of?" Given that its possible to derive the electorate's intent from a set of Range Voting ballots, it's hard to argue that there's ambiguity there. --here you are missing the subtlety I discussed last post in the "ASIDE" portion. If this is your point of view then you have to accept the fact that, USING A RANKED BALLOT VOTING METHOD, if the electorate voted in some way in a N-candidate election which (with all but candidts A,B ignored) seemed to be saying A beats B, then that same electorate, voting again but now only on A&B, might in fact produce votes that say B beats A. (Because the A>B conclusion of the first election might have been an artifact of voter strategy - that strategy changing in the re-vote with only 2 involved.) So your whole viewpoint "everything to do with the electorate" is in fact, just a delusion. There are two ways you can try to wriggle out of that trap. You can either tell your electorate "I, Rob L. demand that in the re-vote, you STAY with the same votes, dammit, no strategy changing allowed" in which case, range voting is a condorcet method. Or you can tell them "I, Rob L. demand that in the re-vote, you MUST be strategic but MUST have been honest in the first vote" in which case range is not a condorcet method. Time to admit I'm right :) ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
