Dear election methods fanatics, Whenever we list-dwellers debate approval vs. IRV (and I have no illusions that this will be the last time it happens), I'd like to suggest that people keep equal rankings IRV (whole votes) in mind as much as possible. Does ER-IRV(whole) have any serious disadvantages to IRV? I don't remember being informed of any, but I hope someone will bring them up if they exist. It seems to me that ER-IRV(whole) answers a lot of the harsher criticisms of IRV which can be made in favor of approval, while maintaining the benefits that IRV has that approval doesn't. I almost think of ER-IRV(whole) as a sort of IRV approval hybrid. Sort of, almost, some kind of hybrid, or something. Now I'm not saying that it isn't worthwhile for approval folks to criticize plain IRV. If people are thinking of using it in some places, yeah, the criticisms are important. But if we're suggesting something else in it's place, what do we suggest? Well, a lot of us would say Condorcet. And yeah, it is perhaps a little silly to get too excited about ER-IRV when you can do Condorcet with the exact same ballots, but you know what they'll say, Condorcet hasn't been used on a large scale yet, but IRV has. And the whole burying strategy thing, which I still think is an issue even if no one else does, plus the turkey argument which I think is bullshit but a lot of people buy into it, and so on. But anyway, let's assume for some cosmic reason that no one in this weird election situation X in some random American state will accept Condorcet at this juncture. They're right on the verge of accepting plain IRV, but lo, we send them an e-mail that says "WAIT, DON'T USE PLAIN IRV, USE _______!!!". Fill in the blank. Do we say, "don't use plain IRV, use ER-IRV(whole)", or "don't use plain IRV, use approval"? See, my feeling right now is to go with the first one. The e-mail will say "Wait, don't use plain IRV, use ER-IRV(whole), or we'll eat your babies! signed, the scary election methods fanatics." 'Cause you know, shit, it's not like the IRV organizers really have to lose face or anything because they're using an equal rankings version. They can say that's what they meant all along, and I won't mind. Maybe it's they're courts or something, I don't know. They're always on about their courts. But you know, that's the way it works in this country. Really it's a country ruled by lawyers. But anyway, maybe the judge won't be cranky that day and he won't realize that the equal rankings version isn't strictly speaking one vote per person per round. I don't know. Anyway, that's what I think right at this moment. Hooray for ER-IRV(whole). Down with plain IRV and approval. At least, I guess, you know?
best, James ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info