<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Briefly replying to two people's comments:
Rob Brown wrote:
-snip-
> I believe that condorcet elections intentionally ignore "strength
> of opinion" information for the exact same practical reason. Since
> there is no way to avoid collecting some strength of opinion
> information (while still collecting the information we *do* need),
> we have to consciously, intentionally ignore that information in
> the tabulation. This is NOT a bad thing.
-snip-
I agree with both of Rob's messages so far on this topic
except for one sentence, which I've included in this
excerpt above. He wrote that collecting some strength of
opinion info cannot be avoided, but I see no strength info
in votes that are orderings of the alternatives.
Jan Kok wrote:
-snip-
> Thus, primary elections should be considered an important target for
> voting reform efforts. Better voting methods used in primaries can
> lead to selection of better candidates for those parties that use the
> better methods, leading to better chances for winning in the general
> election.
-snip-
I disagree. It's the poor methods used in general
elections that create the need to grow large coalitions
each "supporting" one candidate. (I placed quotes around
the word "supporting" because I mean it only in the
relative sense of the word, not some absolute sense.) This
need leads to two large parties each nominating only one
candidate per office. How can that provide enough
competition to be the least corrupt centrist?
These days, primary voters assign great weight to the
expected ability of candidates to raise campaign donations
for the general election. Without public funding or
cheap/free air time in general elections, I believe
tinkering with primaries won't have enough of an effect to
be worth working hard for.
Also, not enough about voters' preferences on the issues
can be learned from votes "for" one of two viable
candidates or from votes in partisan primaries. (Sadly,
this doesn't prevent winners from claiming mandates for
their entire platforms.)
So, I hope the focus will be on improving the methods used
in the general elections. And as a means to this end,
encouraging organizations large and small to use such
methods in their decision-making procedures.
--Steve
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