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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2064027" data-attributes="member: 7240">I don't think there is any such thing as voting out of spite. In IRV, you vote for things you think should win and don't vote for things you think should not. Whether the reason you want something to lose is "spiteful" or not is neither here nor there. The advantage of IRV over approval voting is that there is no conflict between voting in the way most likely to defeat the most hated candidate and voting in the way most likely to elect your favourite candidate. No voting system does or should inquire into the rationality of why you want certain candidates to win and others to lose. All a voting system can do is ensure that your dual agendas of wanting some things to win and others to lose don't conflict with eachother. IRV does this. Approval voting does not. That stated, voting systems are premised on the idea that people will pursue their agendas rationally, however irrational those agendas might, themselves, be. No voting system can compensate for irrational or illogical ideas nor should they. Thus, while the question of what portion of the voters will behave rationally in their own interest is an interesting one, it does not meaningfully pertain to this voting systems debate. Because of this, what we should do is design our systems on the assumption that voters are rational actors -- not because all are but because rational actors are the only people we can meaningfully serve when we design voting systems so we might as well serve them well because no decision we can make will meaningfully serve people who don't rationally pursue their own agenda.</blockquote>

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