[RP TownTalk] How to Avoid Run Off Elections

[Rob Oppenheim]

One of the newest voting methods is called Majority Choice Approval .
I find it quite interesting.
 
In it, voters rank each candidate as ‘favored’, ‘accepted’, or ‘disapproved’.  
 
If a candidate is marked ‘favored’ by more than 50% of the voters, then the 
candidate with the most 'favored' votes wins. Otherwise, the winner is the one
with the highest overall approval (that is, the sum of ‘favored’ and ‘accepted’ votes). 
Ties can be broken based on the number of ‘favored’ marks.
 
The voter can place as many candidates as they want in each category.
That is, a voter who finds two candidates equally suited to the job can
indicate that on their ballot by marking both as 'favored'.  
Similarly, they are allowed to mark several as acceptable, or disapproved.
 
This method has several advantages over Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).
It is simpler for the voter, since they do not have to rank order a list of candidates, 
and it always chooses a winner who is acceptable to the most people. 
 
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)
 
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is an interesting possibility that has 
been around for over 100 years. In it, the voter is asked to rank
all candidates from most preferred to least.
 
When no candidate gets a majority of 1st rank votes, IRV enters a recount mode. 
It is much like holding a series of runoff elections in which the lowest polling candidate 
is eliminated in each round until someone receives a majority vote. 
 
IRV has some problems. Mainly it asks a lot of the voter, in that the voter must 
rank a list of candidates. In our last election, we potentially had 5 candidates.
I shutter at the complexity of asking voters to rank 5 people from most 
preferred to least preferred and mark them on a paper ballot, which is, of 
course, in a different order than what they would rank. 
 
Such a system might get a lot of ballot spoilage and there could be a great
advantage to have your name listed first.
 
IRV is also subject to strategic voting such as "rank manipulation", 
where voters intentionally rank weak candidates highly, in hopes that 
their favored candidate will face a weaker candidate in an instant runoff.
 
Perhaps the worst effect of IRV can be to eliminate a candidate that the 
majority of people fine acceptable but relatively few list as their first choice. 
Below is a link that discusses the strengths and weaknesses of IRV.
 
There are variations of IRV that try to reduce the complexity and problems.
 
One simple variation of IRV is called Supplementary Vote. It has the voter rank 
only a 1st and 2nd choice. It is simpler and is fairly practical, but suffers some of 
the other flaws of IRV.
 
For further reading you might try these links...
 
Majority Choice Approval 
(voters mark each candidate as favored, accepted or disapproved)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_Choice_Approval
 
Supplementary Vote 
(voters mark a 1st and 2nd choice): 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplementary_vote
 
IRV 
(voters mark each candidate with a rank, and elimination rounds choose the winner): 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
 
Borda counts 
(voters mark each candidate with a rank, and the sum of the ranks chooses the winner): 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borda_count
 
- Rob


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