Here's a strategy free method that will work in certain situations: The main requirement is that there has to be an incumbent or status quo option.
The voters indicate which candidates they prefer over the status quo. If the status quo is the Condorcet Winner (i.e. no alternative is preferred over the status quo) then the incumbent/status quo stays in for another term of office. Otherwise, the candidate that is preferred over the status quo by the greatest number of voters is elected. Basically, this is Approval, with the Minimum Acceptable Virtual Candidate (aka the None of the Below approval cutoff) replaced by the incumbent. You might say that pitting the incumbent against all comers is unfair to the incumbent. In fact neutrality is violated. But this may be an appropriate balance on the inherent advantage of incumbents who tend to use their political clout to set things up in their favor. [Of course, it could backfire by encouraging even more of that sort of thing.] Note that in a three way cycle of preference where majorities prefer A to B to C to A, if those preferences persisted over time, the winners would cycle from one election to another, yielding a form of temporal PR. Forest _______________________________________________ Election-methods mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.electorama.com/listinfo.cgi/election-methods-electorama.com