Re: Call for votes for SPI board of directors membership election

On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 08:29:18AM -0500, Jimmy Kaplowitz wrote:
> Real Condorcet doesn't have a way of specifying equal preferences, and
> before we decided to use the modified method I'd want to see some
> mathematically rigorous comparison of our modified version and the
> standard version to see how the modifications can affect the outcome
> and what effect that has on Kenneth Arrow's famous criteria for
> election fairness.

Clarification: true Condorcet does allow you to say "I have no
preference between A and B." (That's what a vote of CD or DC would say.)
It does not allow you to say "I prefer D equally much over A, B, and C."
Also, Kenneth Arrow's theorem doesn't apply to systems like Condorcet
where partially completed ballots are accepted. But, the Condorcet
method has been well and rigorously studied by many people worldwide,
and there have been evaluations of its fairness (by several different
criteria, I'm sure), and among the election methods cognoscenti it is
the most recommended method for fair elections. The same is not true for
Debian's method; it has been discussed by laymen who haven't really done
a rigorous or detailed study of all the ramifications, but it has only
been used in one organization with one set of requirements, and may skew
the results from what would be desired in some as yet unforseen way.
This is what I'm pointing out in the above paragraph.

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy(at)debian(dot)org