To see why, read this term paper that my sister, a Republican sophomore at Dartmouth, wrote for a class in math in social science taught by Robert Norman. It is well written and addresses a very important issue that we as progressives share with the reasonable Right: fundamental voting reform. In the paper, she critically analyzes many voting methods, including pluarlity, IRV, coombs, condorcet, borda, and approval voting and concludes with an endorsement of approval voting.
After reading the paper, I am pretty much sold on approval voting and find myself strongly opposed to switching to IRV or other types of STV voting.
On a side note, my sister wanted me to note that she has not completely cited the paper (so please do not accuse her of plagerism just yet). If you would like a fully cited copy, I will post a link to the paper when it is finished.
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