At 11:31 PM 12/4/2008, Dave Ketchum wrote:
Favored frontrunner? Trying to add some thought.
Agreed to "first rate a favorite and the worst".
Then the standard thought is "the voter rates the frontrunners".
This needs careful thought. It is likely that one of the
frontruners will win. This voter has two obvious approaches to select from:
IF this voter has a preference, proceed as Abd and others suggest.
BUT if this voter sees them as equally desirable or
undesirable, it is proper to treat them as such.
It's "proper" and it improves the results overall, but it is an
abstention with regard to the realistic election pair. That's fine.
But if the voter has a significant preference -- suppose those were
the only two candidates on the ballot, would you bother voting? --
I'd not suggest voting that way. Make a choice, if it matters. If
not, sure, stand aside and let people who care make the decision.
With your vote equating them, you can express, still, whether you
accept them or not. That can be important if a majority is required
(the Range method then must have an explicit method of indicating
that the voter will accept the election of each candidate, easy to
do, probably the easiest is that the voter rates the candidate above
midrange -- or maybe at midrange.)
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