-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Nathaniel Krause wrote:
I'm not too comfortable with the implication that there is a wrong and right way to use approval voting in this election. It strikes me as a bug rather than a feature that Board elections currently don't allow the voter to express any preference at all among the candidates that she or he finds acceptable.
A bug? No, preference voting isn't a "bug", it's simply another style of voting, along with plurality, Borda count, Condorcet criterion, etc. It's possible to create an infinite number of sets of voters such that a different candidate wins in each election for each different vote-counting method. It's one of those tricky mathematical problems ... how do you count and tabulate opinion? For what it's worth, I prefer the preference vote, because many mathematicians have looked at the issue very carefully and it's what they use when voting amongst themselves.
I'd really like to see WMF switch to a form of Condorcet voting, such as the Schultze method, for the next elections. This would allow the voter the flexibility to rank candidates in order of preference, or to rank several equally if they prefer.
- -- Ben McIlwain ("Cyde Weys")
~ Ubi olim vita, nunc vita ~