November 08, 2002
A Voting Summary
I think where I'm ending up on the whole voting thing is:- Borda is the best method if you can assume that everyone votes honestly and rationally.
- You can't assume that everyone votes honestly and rationally.
- I'm still confused between Condorcet and Approval, but Condorcet just seems cooler to me.
I'm still confused on a number of matters, though.
- Condorcet's rankings assume an equidistant preference shift between each choice. #1 is as much a better choice than #2 is for me as #2 is to #3. When really, I might be rabid about #1, while #2 and #3 might just be okay.
- In Borda, #1 has an advantage over #5, five points to one (for five candidates). In Condorcet, it's just scored as a win.
- I want a voting method that will measure how MUCH you want someone over another candidate (degree of rabidness), but without having to deal with all the fear-based voting that could entail (increasing a second-choice candidate means decreasing the likelihood of the first-choice candidate).