I don't believe that Range Voting will eliminate even the kind of spoilers that IRV does away with. Consider two-candidate race between Bush and Gore in which 51 voters prefer Gore to Bush and 49 prefer Bush to Gore. Following the directions given on the RangeVoting.org website, voters should give a '10' to their favorite candidate and a '0' to their least favorite:
51 people rate Gore=10, Bush=0 49 people rate Bush=10, Gore=0 the result: Gore=510 > Bush=490 (Gore wins) Now we re-run the election with Nader in the race. When Nader enters, 5 people for whom Gore was their first choice switch to preferring Nader. Those 5 voters rate Nader a '10' and push Gore down to '5': 46 people rate Gore=10, Bush=0, Nader=0 49 people rate Bush=10, Gore=0, Nader=0 5 people rate Nader=10, Gore=5, Bush=0 result: Bush=490 > Gore=485 > Nader=50 (Bush wins) How could the 5 Nader voters suddenly have a different utility for Gore? In reality, the rating a voter will give to a candidate isn't some fixed objective measurement of their happiness with a candidate, but a rating relative to the options available. In short, everyone will naturally grades on a curve. To say that RV satisfies IIA is to ignore the reality that ratings will inevitably be relative. Thus, Nader would still be labeled a spoiler, because his entrance into a race causes some to rate Gore lower. Agree? Greg ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
