Craig Layton gave me permission to forward his reply to the EM list: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 09:19:19 +1000 From: LAYTON Craig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: 'Forest Simmons' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, MIKE OSSIPOFF <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: The Allure of IRV
Hello all Forest wrote: >Craig Layton, are you there? Correct me. Is the "above line option" only >there for PR elections? Is it there for all STV elections, multiple >winner or single winner? The above line option is only there for multi-winner (PR) elections, where 90-95% of ballots are above the line. However, in single winner elections how-to-vote cards are very important and followed by a large number of voters, which pretty much amounts to the same thing. I'm not aware of any studies or concrete figures on exactly how many voters follow the cards, but anecdotal evidence suggests any close three way contests are more often than not decided on the preferences on the cards (ie, in a close-ish race between A, B & C, if A and B both "endorse" C to recieve their 2nd preferences, then C is likely to win whether he is the sincere IRV winner or not). This is why when you read Australian media on elections they talk about a candidate giving their preferences to another candidate, which I can see could be misleading. On a more general note (in relation to your current discussion). I've come to the conclusion, by talking to regular people defending IRV, that the reason people don't like alternatives (such as approval) so much is that they can't get past the concept that a vote is an indivisible, immutable object (like a billiard ball, I think the metaphor goes). This concept has been with most people their entire lives, and it is difficult to convince even otherwise rational people to let it go. I suspect that only through more open debate about divergent electoral methods will this be broken down. Regards, Craig ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em
