I wrote and Paul K responded:
> The far more significant distinction (within that class of > methods) is what ballot you use. I'm personally partial to > ABCDF graded ballots, with "E" being the default grade for > unranked candidates.
Does "graded ballots" mean applying something that smells like "Borda" or does it give more weight to some voters than others?
Nope. The idea is simply to take someone's grades and translate them into a ranked ordering. So if I give Joe an A, Bob and Sally B's, and Frank a D, my ballot becomes:
1) Joe 2) Bob and Sally 3) Frank
The result would be the same if I gave Joe a C, Frank an F, and left Bob and Sally unranked (implicitly an "E"). Only relative grade matters.
The rationale to use grades to simplify the decision process and prevent confusion by the voter. With numbered rankings, some folks might think a "10" is the best and a "1" is the worst, and vice versa. It's much harder to make that mistake with letter grades, at least in the United States.
Note: it's true that this approach no longer allows strict ordering once you have more than six alternatives. This doesn't bother me at all, but for those that it does bother, I'd note that adding plusses and minuses can triple the number of slots.
-Adam
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