A couple weeks ago Forest Simmons suggested the candidate withdrawal option as a way of improving most election methods. I just realized that the candidate withdrawal option would greatly mitigate the center squeeze problem with IRV. (Sometimes it takes a while for other people's ideas to sink into my thick skull :-)
Are there cases where candidate withdrawal could make things worse? Maybe I could propose this to the Denver group, if they are determined to go ahead with IRV. So, what should the rules be for candidate withdrawal with IRV? Should candidates be allowed to withdraw at any time (including after the IRV count is done, causing the IRV count to be restarted from the beginning, or restarted at a particular step), or is there a need for restrictions? Thanks, - Jan ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info