On Jun 24, 2012, at 8:55 PM, Michael Ossipoff wrote:
To Democracy Chronicles, EM, and Dave Ketchum:
On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 12:19 PM, Dave Ketchum <[email protected]
> wrote:
Quoting from today's Demoncracy Chronicles, 6/24/12:
The basic idea is avoid the situation faced today, where many
candidates that are well liked do not get votes because voters
choose the most likely to win candidate instead of their
favorite. Source: Democracy Chronicles (http://s.tt/1fy4W)
Dave comments:
Reads like a typo - that these voters would vote for the one they
think is most likely to be voted for by other voters.
I reply:
The voters are certain that the winner will be either the Republican
or the Democrat, and so they (nearly) all vote for the Republican or
the Democrat. And so guess what?...The winner is therefore
predictably always the Republican or the Democrat.
Assuming X is reported as likely to win, these voters would help this
along by also voting for X, rather than voting for X or Y according to
which they would prefer to have win.
Agreed that if X and Y are Rep and Dem, considering only among them as
major candidates makes sense - but voting for the one reported as
ahead fails as to being useful.
But thanks for your suggested wording-change, Dave.
Dave continues:
for Approval voters should:
. Start with their favorite.
. Add the best they see among possible winners - but not if this
best likely will cause their favorite to lose.
[endquote]
Sounds about right. I like and agree with Dave's emphasis on
avoiding helping an unliked compromise. You won't find any unliked
compromises marked on my approval ballot. In Approval, one never
approves an unacceptable candidate.
But I also refer Dave to the strategy suggestions in my Approval
article at Democracy Chronicles, for voters who want to use strategy.
But my best suggestion for voting in Approval is: Just approve
(only) the candidates whom you like, trusts, &/or consider deserving
of your support.
If all you know is that you see X and Y as each deserving, you
properly vote for both.
However, changing that to preferring X, and X and Y each being
possible deserving winners, you need to consider:
If your vote will likely not affect which one wins, vote for both.
If voting for Y could cause Y to win over X, you think on this
as part of deciding whether to also vote for Y.
It gets sticky. If considering only Y, then whether Y may be
deserving is all you need as to voting. Add to this X being
deserving, and you need to consider possibility of voting for both
causing X to lose.
Mike Ossipoff
DWK
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