RAV works as follows:
The voter ranks the approved candidates only. The CW wins if one exists, otherwise the least approved candidate is eliminated until a CW is found.
Equal rankings are not allowed in basic RAV. A variation could be to allow equal ranking, in which case the name could be RAVE (RAV Equal) or RAVERA (RAV with Equal Ranking Allowed).
I believe RAV is an excellent method and has a better chance than any other ranking method of beating IRV for public acceptance.
Another variation of RAV could be to allow the voter to rank all the candidates and also specify an Approval cutoff. I like that method, but I think the requirement for specifying an Approval cutoff separate from the rankings themselves will only confuse voters and make the method a harder sell -- with little if any added benefit. The rankings of the unapproved candidates are likely to be strategic anyway: most voters will probably "bury" the unapproved candidate with the best chance of winning, regardless of their true ranking of that candidate.
--Russ ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
