On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 09:46:06PM +1200, Craig Carey wrote: > > This is a lengthy argument against the current Debian problem of > wrongly rejecting Mr Branden Robinson who would almost certainly be > the winner if the method of the last election was maximally proportional > (and passing P2) and monotonic. I.e. the method then is almost the > smallest adjustment that 'debugs' the unfair Alternative Vote method. >
"argument against .. Debian problem". By your argument Debian has no problem? I'm still trying to decide whether the first two lines above can be read two ways or not. I'll tentatively congratulate you on a well constructed troll, but rise to the bait anyway. :) This DPL election will probably make an interesting case for the election reform movement: where a strict IRV vote (discarding some valid Condorcet votes in favor of only linearly-ranked votes) would have selected one candidate (B) when the majority would have preferred another (M). Having three strong candidates, and no clear linear relation between them all is very real-world, reflecting candidates and an electorate who have more than a single issue in mind. The first time IRV selects a candidate who does not have popular (if not extreme) support will probably also be it's last time, and probably be such an ugly mess that election reform in the U.S. will be set back a generation or two, and (if not already at rock bottom) further erode the public's faith in the electoral system. In the case of a volunteer association, it would probably have a negative impact on the membership rolls. Those who argue that IRV encourages voter turnout in Australia may be unaware that election officials go door to door after major elections handing out $100 citations unless you can come up with a really good reason. "Not Australian" works. Turnout under duress isn't all that interesting a figure on the merit of an election system. More than half of the Australians I knew were pretty unhappy with their elected representatives. I'm not sure that's even better than plurality. None were suspicious of their electoral system, but I suspect that's more a difference between Australians and Americans rather than a difference between IRV and plurality voting systems. "smudging the weight of the paper". This is like the essay grading technique - throwing them down a staircase and grading based on how far they go? I really like the arguments like "the bad election method is bad". If this was a real post and not a troll ... you need to be a *bit* less emphatic with your opinions and more clear with your justifications. The modification of IRV to handle equally ranked ballots was clear, but pretty irrelevant with respect to the validity of Debian's Condorcet method. -Drake [just a Debian voter who was satisfied with the results and saw no problem]