To get the winners, we first look at everyone’s top-ranked candidates and eliminate the candidate ranked top on the least votes. All voters who had the eliminated candidate as their top-ranked candidate have all their votes moved up one for the next round (so in round 2, the candidate they ranked as a second choice will be treated as a top choice). This process is repeated until we are left with three candidates.
This is a popular way to count ranked ballots, but it really shouldn’t be. Counting only first-choice votes in each round means you are discarding many of the preferences that voters expressed on their ballots, which can incorrectly eliminate candidates through vote-splitting, even when a supermajority of voters preferred them over others.
Please set a good example and don’t use plurality-based systems like this.
This is a popular way to count ranked ballots, but it really shouldn’t be. Counting only first-choice votes in each round means you are discarding many of the preferences that voters expressed on their ballots, which can incorrectly eliminate candidates through vote-splitting, even when a supermajority of voters preferred them over others.
Please set a good example and don’t use plurality-based systems like this.