Let me first repeat Steve Eppley's suggestion: The candidate withdrawal option. Even IRV could have its worst problem gotten rid of if , after the count determines a winner, any nonwinning candidate has the option of withdrawing and calling for a recount with his name deleted from the rankings. Obviously if he tops a ranking, then the 2nd choice on that ranking becomes its 1st choice. After the next count, and winner determination, again anyone who hasn't already withdrawn could do so, calling for a recount without him on the ballots. This continues till no one wants to withdraw. This should satisfy the IRV people, if this option is combined with IRV. Regrettably, though, the IRVies didn't accept the idea when it was offered to them. They felt that it violated the voter's control of what happens. What? Your favorite doesn't win, and he has you vote with which you could have at least helped your 2nd choice, and the IRVies don't want your 1st choice to be able to withdraw and let you use your vote to accomplish something. IRVies talk a lot about "wasted votes". What vote could be more wasted than the one that's on your losing favorite while your needed 2nd choice compromise gets eliminated? The other suggestion was made on an organizational web-newsgroup: Candidate-Proxy: Someone said: Conduct a 1-vote Plurality balloting, and then let the candidates vote on which candidate should win. For that vote, each candidate has a number of votes equal to the number that he received from his voters. The candidates could negotiate & logroll before their final vote to determine the winner. Well, if the IRVies don't like the candidate withdrawal option, they would like this 2nd proposal even less. I think they're both ok. IRV really would lose its big disadvantage, with the candidate withdrawal option. Richie could still promote the method that he insists on promoting, and the voters wouldn't have to suffer the disadvantages of Richie's proposal. It's regrettable that Richie & others at CVD & its California affiliate refuse to accept the candidate withdrawal option. Candidate withdrawal could be used with with Condorcet too, though there'd be little need for it. Candidate withdrawal is mainly a mittigation for IRV, and a very good mitigation. The candidate-proxy proposal probably wouldn't be accepted by people. My proposals are still Condorcet & Approval. Mike Ossipoff _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
