First, let me nominate another candidate: Historian Michael Parenti.
I suggest that, for rank ballots in the poll, voters should have the automatic equal ranking line option.
The voter can indicate that s/he would like to have an automatic equal ranking line at any place that s/he specifies in hir ranking. Doing so means that if there's a circular tie, and if no candidate above that line wins, then that voter wants to move to 1st place all of the candidates above that line, and have the election's rankings re-counted.
[end of definition of automatic equal ranking line option]
The use of that option protects the above-line candidates from offensive order-reversal.
Additionally, if a voter rates the candidates as being in 2 sets such that the merit differences within each set are negligible compared to the merit difference between the 2 sets, that voter won't have incentive to rank all the better-set candidates in 1st place. That voter can instead just place the automatic equal ranking line just below the better-set candidates.
So, in general, that option protects the above-line candidates against offensive order-reversal, and it also protects them, maxizing the probability that one of them will win, in natural circular ties.
The automatic equal ranking line option is one of the several automatic strategy options that I propose for wv. I wouldn't include them in a public proposal, but I'd propose at least some of them later, after wv has been in public use for some time. Of course they should be proposed for public elections at such time as the problems that they help are becoming considered a problem.
For this poll, I'm only proposing the automatic equal ranking line option.
Example of its use:
1. Camejo, Parenti (and Livingstone if he qualifies as a candidate) 2. Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Howard Zinn 3. Al Sharpton, Jim Hightower [automatic equal ranking line] 4. Kucinich 5. Dean 6. Edwards 7. Kerry
Of course an Approval cutoff could be indicated in the ranking in the same way as the automatic equal ranking line.
And, with pre-constructed ballots, an Approval cutoff and an automatic equal ranking line can be indicated by having the ballot ask "If you want an Approval cutoff, below which rank position do you want it?" and "If you want an automatic equal ranking line, below which rank position do you want it?"
Mike Ossipoff
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