03/30/02 - Re: How to vote in Approval: Dave wrote: "I like Condorcet because I CAN say the two things I care most about: Approve of the candidate I MOST like. Get in on deciding between the candidates most likely to win."
Dear Dave, Donald here, I like IRVing because I CAN say the two things I care most about: Approve of the candidate I MOST like. Get in on deciding between the candidates most likely to win." Plus, with IRVing, my lower choices will not be helping some other candidate while my first choice is still a contender. Mike wrote: But 3 different Australians have told me that it's common for preferrers of 3rd parties to insincerely rank one of the big-2 in 1st place, so as not to "waste [their] vote". Donald: I don't believe this. Either those three Australians are telling you what you want to hear, if in fact they really did tell you that, or you are only hearing what you want to hear. You are either fooling yourself or are being fooled. In any IRVing election it is stupid "...for preferrers of 3rd parties to insincerely rank one of the big-2 in 1st place..." To do so will reduce the election down to a Plurality election. I would say that you are trying to pass as much misinformation about IRVing as possible so you can promote Approval Voting, the Trojan horse, the actual sick horse of election methods. Back to Dave, take everythig that Mike writes with a grain of salt. To understand Mike you must know what his agenda is, which is, he wants an election method that will put his third party candidate on the fast track to the winner's circle, by hook or by crook. IRVing will not do this for him. In IRVing the winner must have the votes in the end, but Approval Voting is able to do this little trick of deception. A conclusive majority of the public is not interested in electing the third candidate, but if only half of them make the mistake of foolishly giving a second vote to a third candidate in an Approval election, then it is possible for that candidate to win. This is the deception of Approval Voting and this is what Mike and his cohorts are counting on. Give the public more votes and then maybe the third candidate will get enough to win. Giving the public more votes is like giving them more rope to hang themselves. The people on this list can vote anyway they want to in an Approval Voting election, that is not important. What is important is the way the public should vote and that is as follows: The supporters of the two largest factions should only cast one vote each. Doing this insures the winner will be one of the top two candidates. As I have said before, the voters of the top two candidates are not interested in electing the third place Nader. Bullet voting is the best defense against Approval Voting. (I keep expecting that some day the Approval crowd will insist on a rule in which all voters must cast n-1 votes. That's the only way Approval Voting will ever be able to con the public.) If the third parties also bullet vote, then the election is reduced down to Plurality - the more things change the more they remain the same. So, third party voters should cast more than one vote. If so, then the Approval Voting election is now reduced to a form of IRVing. All roads lead to Rome and all single seat method lead to IRVing. Best to start with IRVing and not with Approval nor Borda nor Condorcet. Regards, Donald Davison, host of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ | Q U O T A T I O N | | "Democracy is a beautiful thing, | | except that part about letting just any old yokel vote." | | - Age 10 - | +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ APV Approval Voting ATV Alternative Vote aka IRV Instant Runoff Voting aka IRVing FPTP First Past The Post aka Plurality NOTA None of the Above aka RON Re-Open Nominations STV Single Transferable Vote aka Preference Voting aka Choice Voting aka Hare Clarke aka Hare Preferential Voting Please be advised that sending email to me allows me to quote from it and/or forward the entire email to others.
