On May 25, 2011, at 2:07 AM, Andrew Myers wrote:
On 7/22/64 11:59 AM, Dave Ketchum wrote:
On May 24, 2011, at 6:42 PM, [email protected] wrote:
About six years ago Toby Nixon asked the members of this EM list
for a
advice on what election method
to try propose in the Washington State Legislature. He finally
settled
on CSSD beatpath. As near as I
know nothing came of it. What would we propose if we had another
opportunity like that?
It seems to me that people have rejected IRV, Bucklin, and other
methods based on ranked ballots
because they don’t want to rank the candidates.
I would propose Condorcet, with just a few clarifications:
Leave CSSD beatpath as a detail method decision to resolve later.
Reject IRV for known problems.
Those unranked are simply counted as having the bottom rank.
Write-ins permitted and counted as if actually nominated. This is a
bit
of extra pain, but I like it better than demanding extra nominations
that enemies could make unacceptably difficult.
Equal ranking permitted. Those who like Approval should understand
that
using a single rank lets them express their desire without
considering
ranking in detail.
No restrictions as to how rank numbers compare - when considering
which
of a pair has higher rank, ONLY their ranks compare as H>L, L>H, or
E=-
what ranks are assigned to other candidates have no effect on this.
No restriction as to how many rank numbers a voter may use, beyond
fact
that a chosen ballot design may impose a limit as to how many can be
expressed.
DYN is a simple addition for those who see value in that method.
Having conducted in the CIVS system an experiment over the past
several years as to whether people are able to deal with ranked
ballots, I have to say that voters seem to be able to deal with
ranking choices. In fact they will even rank dozens of choices. As
long as the user interface is not painful, it's not a big deal for
most people. So I would choose Condorcet in a second. Like Dave, I
don't think the completion method matters a great deal. However,
write-ins are a more complicated issue and it is still not clear to
me how to handle them fairly.
I was not limiting how much deciding on completion method matters -
just saying what I do care about matters more.
Ranking dozens? I think some overdo that - It should be acceptable
for any voter to quit after ranking those they care most about.
Two thoughts on write-ins:
When having a lone thought it matters little.
When wanting to elect one who is not nominated, get serious and
campaign, just as you do for a favored nominee.
-- Andrew
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