I just thought of a possible definition of clones: Candidates A and B are clones in a ranked-ballot election if and only if deleting A from the ballots and renaming B as A is equivalent to deleting B from the ballots.
Example: 49:Reagan>Anderson>Carter 33:Carter>Anderson>Reagan 18:Anderson>Carter>Reagan Deleting Carter gives: 49:Reagan>Anderson 33:Anderson>Reagan 18:Anderson>Reagan Deleting Anderson gives: 49:Reagan>Carter 33:Carter>Reagan 18:Carter>Reagan Now the sets of ballots are identical except for the name of Anderson/Carter, so Anderson and Carter are clones in this election. On the other hand, deleting Reagan gives: 49:Anderson>Carter 33:Carter>Anderson 18:Anderson>Carter Which isn't identical to either of the other sets of ballots, so Reagan isn't a clone of either of them. Can this definition ever fail? Has it been suggested before? -- Rob LeGrand [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.onr.com/user/honky98/rbvote/calc.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/
