>> From: Tom Ruen >> Subject: Re: [EM] Bad Condorcet winners? >> 1. IRV is less demanding because it never uses >> lower rankings on a ballot until all higher >> candidates are eliminated. Therefore voters >> don't have to think very hard about lower >> choices. However when an election is a close >> 3-way contest, there is the dilemma on whether >> to compromise first to be safe against a >> strong scary candidate. I'm wondering if this really reflects the whole nature of the election. From what I've heard of the just-completed Ryan by-election (Queensland, Australia), a significant component of the electorate didn't vote for someone so much as voted against John Howard (he wasn't running, but his party was), even to the extent of some voters writing "You're next Howard" on the ballot. So, what I'm thinking is that some voters could care more about putting the Libs candidate last than putting a particular candidate first, to make sure the Libs lose. Voting primarily to keep someone out of office sounds like a legitimate objective to me.