Markus-- When there's a group that doesn't agree on what voting system to use, how do you conduct a vote? I suggest the following nonmonotonic method, which I call "Voter's Choice". Monotonicity is desirable when it's attainable, but when there isn't agreement on how to vote, we must take what we can get. Say we're voting on what voting system to begin using. Assuming that some of the proposed methods are rank-balloting methods, voters are invited to rank the proposed methods in order of preference. If Approval is one of the proposals, then voters are also invited to vote an Approval ballot, in addition to their ranking. We count the ballots by all of the proposed methods. If a voter didn't vote an Approval ballot, then one can be inferred from his ranking, as was done in the _Discover_ article: When all we know about a voter is how he ranks the alternatives, then the 0-info Approval strategy that maximizes his utility expectation is one that votes for his favorite half of the alternatives. If someone votes an Approval ballot but not a ranking, then of course, for rank-method purposes, that is counted as voting in 1st place all the candidates for whom he voted on his Approval ballot. Each voter has one Plurality vote. Your Plurality vote goes to the winner of the method that you've ranked highest. If you've only voted an Approval ballot, then you give a Plurality vote to the winners by all of the methods to which you've given an Approval vote. The method with the most Plurality votes wins. The advantage of Voter's Choice is that if you feel that a certain voting system is the one that would do the best job of picking the best compromise that you can get, then that's the method that you'd want to guide where you give your Plurality vote. Though that procedure is unavoidably nonmonotonic, hopefully the winning method in that count would be a monotonic method, and that method would be used in subsequent elections. 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.
