Re:Show HN: RankedVote – SurveyMonkey but focused on ranked-...
by Wowfunhappy on Thursday October 06, 2022 @08:21PM
(#33115902)
I agree, but I'd argue that instant-runoff/RCV is the second-easiest to understand, by far, while also being much better than simple plurality voting. Which is why I strongly favor instant-runoff.
Re:Show HN: RankedVote – SurveyMonkey but focused on ranked-...
by dane-pgp on Friday October 07, 2022 @01:11AM
(#33117670)
Actually there's another option which hasn't been mentioned so far, which is just as easy to implement as plurality (for both voting and counting by hand), and has pretty much all the benefits of IRV/RCV.
That method is "Asset Voting", which works exactly like a plurality vote, except that once the totals for each candidate are known, the candidates are eliminated one by one (from least to most votes) and get to assign their vote counts to any remaining candidate.
If you agree with me and the parent post that voter confidence (including avoiding electronic counting machines) is the most important factor when evaluating possible alternatives to plurality (assuming the alternatives are no worse than plurality) then hopefully you will agree that Asset Voting is preferable to IRV/RCV.
Any kind of ranking is going to mean you need to know enough about each candidate to put them in some kind of order. Maybe OK if there are two candidates but much harder after that. Most people will rank their favorite on top and then just randomly rank the remainder.
Simple plurality or majority vote is easiest to understand and easiest for the voter. You vote for the one candidate you like the best. If the isn't a majority for one and that is required, you have a runoff between the top two.