At 10:57 PM -0400 10/27/06, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: >This is simply a guess, and is probably a bad one. Insincere voting >damages the utility of the election *for those who vote insincerely.* >They risk achieving a poor outcome. Essentially, they are taking an >intelligent process and attempting to confuse it with lies.
I disagree. They're taking a process as defined (whether it's intelligent doesn't enter into it) and attempting to maximize the outcome, from their point of view. They may make a bad job of it--their strategizing may be less than optimum, and their information is less, perhaps much less, than perfect--but they're acting, at root, rationally. I take the term "insincere" as a metaphor, not a value judgement. I attach more weight to criteria that encourage sincere voting than to criteria that presuppose sincere voting while encouraging insincere voting, however desirable they are once that presupposition is granted. Obviously not everybody agrees with me.... -- /Jonathan Lundell. ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
