On Jun 26, 2008, at 0:54 , Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
Note that the utilities of B and C were 123 and 99. I didn't anchor
the scale in any way but numbers around 100 could still be "above
average politician".
"Above average" among what sample? Certainly not this one!
The sample was the politicians of your country (+ other candidates).
Maybe their utility is typically around 30. (Utility 543 was possibly
for yourself or your friend.)
I think three frontrunners is not a very distant scenario. I also
think spoilers are quite possible in Range and Approval. Some spoiler
scenarios were already mentioned in this thread. You also already
replied to Chris Benham on the McCain-Obama-Clinton example in
another mail (and therefore I'll try to be brief here).
While three frontrunners is certainly possible in theory, it's rare
in a two-party system, it happens in certain ways.
But I assume the idea was to enrich the typical "two parties, two
candidates and minor spoilers" set-up. If the small party candidates
will stay minor candidates with no chances of being elected forever
then we could use e.g. a method where the ballot has first one
option, D or R, and then a write-in field where you can write any
minor candidate name (or several) but that field will be ignored in
the counting process. I mean that there must be at least three viable
candidates in some elections if any any of the minor candidates are
ever expected to raise from the "joke category" upwards (well, unless
the changes always happen so quickly that the old leading candidates/
parties are already at the "joke category" at the time of the election.)
Juho
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