To Chris Benham: I have problems with your comment quoted below, for reasons other than that it's insulting. First, your example has zero value as a practical scenario. Who is talking about 3-voter elections here? Second, the probability that even three voters would vote this way is very low, and the probability that 15 million would vote these two ways is exactly zero. Third, I'm aware of the problem you're trying to address with this example, which is why in the voting instructions I proposed voters would be asked what their most-preferred candidates are, and either those candidates would automatically receive the highest possible rating or, at minumum, voters would be advised that if they really do prefer one or more candidates over all the others, their best strategy is to give the candidate(s) they prefer the highest rating. I'm inclined to think that each voter's most-preferred candidate(s) should automatically receive the highest ranting, but it wouldn't bother me if voters were permitted to rate their most preferred candidates in whatever ways they wanted to provided they are given good information about the strategy implications of doing so. With that proviso, I agree with Mike Ossipoff.
Finally, please understand that I'm not advocating or defending range voting. Right now, I still trying to decide whether it is a voting method that should be seriously considered for at least some voting situations as an alternative to plurality and IRV (which today are the only two methods that more than a very small percentage of U.S. citizens are even aware of). -Ralph Suter In a message dated 1/8/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > CB: If the 99 voters don't "want to be heard", then why are they > bothering to vote? Take this example: > > 2: A7, B6 > 1: B100, A0. > > (Ralph Suter can multiply these numbers by 5 million, if that will make > him happy.) The two A supporters are very > religious, and they have resolved to reserve the maximum possible rating > of 100 for the second coming of Jesus Christ > and the lowest possible rating of 0 for the anti-Christ. ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info