Voting system

Voting systems are methods of choosing between different options. They are most commonly used in elections, but are also used for many other purposes: to award prizes, to select between different plans of action, or even by computer programs to evaluate which solution is best for a complex problem.

Considerations in making a good voting system

It is impossible for any one system to be "perfect", because some of the considerations in what makes a voting system good are contradictory. For example, if one candidate is intensely popular among most people and intensely unpopular among the rest, are they better or worse than a candidate universally accepted unenthusiastically? Different voting systems draw the lines in different places. These are some of the considerations many people take into account when evaluating a voting system:

• Proportionality
• Potential for Tactical Voting
• Acceptability of choice
• Popularity of choice
• Simplicity

Systems

Most voting systems fall under one of the following categories, or are a hybrid of two or more categories:

• Borda count
• Plurality voting
• Range voting
• Single transfer voting
• Runoff voting
• Instant Runoff Voting (also called Alternative Vote)
• Party-list proportional representation
• Approval voting
• Condorcets Method
• [Cumulative voting]?

None of the Above

In all of these systems, there is a choice about whether to include an option to vote against filling the seat. This is implemented in different systems, sometimes by erecting a threshold which winning candidates must pass, sometimes by entering a theoretical "None of the above" candidate into the running.

External Links

• http://www.fairvote.org (Center for Voting and Democracy)
• [ODP Category on Voting Systems]

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