Understanding Ranked Voting: How It Works and When to use it

In a ranked voting system, voters express their preferences by ranking candidates. This system is particularly valuable in scenarios where there’s a need for either a single winner or multiple winners, as it helps capture the broad preferences of the voting population. Ranked voting is often used in settings like organizational board elections, school councils, or even community decision-making processes, where voters want a fair representation of their collective priorities. Let's break down how ranked voting works and explore the best situations to use each method.

Ranked Voting with a Single Winner

For elections where only one winner is required, ranked voting typically uses a "50%+1" rule. This setup is useful for organizations or groups looking to elect a single leader or chairperson where broad support is essential. Here’s how it works:

1. Initial Count: All 1st choice votes are counted. If any candidate receives more than 50% of these votes, they’re immediately declared the winner.

2. Elimination & Transfer: If no candidate has more than 50%, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The votes for this candidate are then transferred to each voter’s next choice.

3. Repeating the Process: This process continues, with the candidate with the fewest votes being eliminated and their votes transferred to remaining candidates, until one candidate has more than 50% of the votes and wins.

Example: A school board voting for a new chairperson might use this system to ensure the chosen candidate has broad support. Even if there are many initial candidates, this method will ultimately narrow the field down to the most preferred candidate who has majority support.

Ranked Voting for Multiple Winners

When multiple winners are needed, such as in board elections with several open seats or committee elections, ranked voting ensures balanced representation across voter preferences. Here are two main calculation methods:

1. Traditional STV Formula (Single Transferable Vote)

   • Quota Calculation: The “Droop Quota” is used here:
     • Droop Quota = (Total Votes / Number of positions + 1) + 1
   • Proportional Representation: This method ensures that the winners reflect the diverse preferences of the voters, giving proportional representation.

   Example: In a student government election with five open positions, a candidate would need 18 votes to win if there were 100 votes cast. This way, voters can see a diverse range of candidates represented.

2. Enforced 50%+1 Quota

   • Majority Representation: Candidates must secure more than 50% of the votes, which is beneficial in smaller elections where a majority consensus is essential, like selecting a team of representatives for a small committee.

   Example: If 100 votes are cast for five committee seats, each candidate would need 51 votes to win. This method encourages more concentrated support for each winner.

Considering Ballot Exhaustion and Dynamic Quotas

In scenarios with a large candidate pool, such as community board elections, voters might prefer not to rank all candidates. Instead, they might rank only their top choices. This option provides flexibility but introduces a few unique considerations:

1. Exhausted Ballots: As rounds progress, some ballots may no longer have remaining ranked candidates, meaning they’re “exhausted.” This reduces the total number of active votes in later rounds.

2. Dynamic Quota: Because ballots can become exhausted, the "50%+1" rule applies to remaining active votes. For instance, if 100 people vote and 20 ballots are exhausted, a candidate only needs 41 of the remaining 80 votes to win.

Example: In large association elections, allowing voters to rank only their top candidates (e.g., top 8 out of 20) makes voting easier and more manageable while still yielding fair results.

Recommended Approach: Traditional STV Formula with Full Candidate Ranking

For a balanced solution that maximizes representation and minimizes ballot exhaustion, we recommend using the traditional STV formula while encouraging voters to rank all available candidates on the ballot. This approach provides:

1. Comprehensive Representation: By ranking all candidates, voters ensure their preferences are fully represented throughout the voting process, allowing for a more diverse set of winners that truly reflect the spectrum of voter opinions.

2. Minimized Ballot Exhaustion: Ranking all candidates helps reduce the number of exhausted ballots, as each voter’s preference continues to impact the results, even if their top choices are eliminated.

3. Enhanced Flexibility: Full ranking allows voters to express their preferences in detail, leading to outcomes that more accurately represent the electorate's collective priorities.

Encouraging voters to rank every candidate ensures that as many votes as possible contribute to electing a winner, fostering a more democratic and inclusive process.

Why Choose Ranked Voting?

Ranked voting is versatile, effective, and adaptable. Whether you’re organizing a board election, a student council, or a local association committee, ranked voting provides options for fair and representative outcomes. By understanding these methods and tailoring the process to your needs, you can create an election that empowers participants to share their true preferences.

For more information or guidance on implementing a ranked voting system that fits your unique needs, feel free to reach out. We're here to help!