Burr dilemma
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The Burr dilemma is a term coined by Jack H. Nagel to describe the likelihood of ties between two or more candidates in the misuse of Approval voting as a multi-member method. To quote Nagel, "Problems of multicandidate races in U.S. presidential elections motivated the modern invention and advocacy of approval voting; but it has not previously been recognized that the first four presidential elections (1788–1800) were conducted using a variant of approval voting. That experiment ended disastrously in 1800 with the infamous Electoral College tie between Jefferson and Burr. The tie, ... resulted less from miscalculation than from a strategic tension built into approval voting, which forces two leaders appealing to the same voters to play a game of Chicken."[1]
In this election, the candidate who received the largest number of votes was elected president, and the candidate receiving the second largest number of votes was elected vice-president. As such, the election was not a true instance of approval voting, but Nagel argues that the strategic tension that voters faced is nevertheless indicative of the dilemma they would face under genuine approval voting.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.journalofpolitics.org/files/69_1/Nagel.pdf The Burr Dilemma in Approval Voting, The Journal of Politics Volume 69 Issue 1 Page 43 - February 2007
