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Condorcet Voting
why vote for the lesser of two evils?
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Condorcet
voting
is a multiple-vote system with lots of benefits and very
few drawbacks. It works better, mathematically, than other plurality vote
systems -- such as
approval voting,
and
instant runoff.
But this page isn't here to describe condorcet. This is about getting it
accepted and implemented.
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Explaining Condorcet to Voters |
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The most effective way to get the voting system changed is to let the voters
know it exists, how it works, and why it's a good idea. But how do you
explain something complicated to people with near-zero attention spans?
Television seems to be the primary medium for advertising, and should serve
well to introduce people to condorcet voting. A short ad can touch upon
the most important aspects of it -- in particular, how to use it.
Suppose you were voting in an election with eight candidates: Brooke, Claire,
Dave, George, Jason, Rachel, Susan, and Thomas. You know that you like both
Dave and Jason, but can't decide which is better. But you really want Susan,
from a smaller party, to win. And you don't really mind Brooke. However,
you completely disapprove of the other four candidates, and you think that
George is by far the worst. You could fill out a ballot such as the
following:
| Rank | Candidate(s) |
| 1 | Susan, |
| 2 | Dave, Jason, |
| 3 | Brooke, |
| 4 | (disapprove below this line) |
| 5 | Rachel, Thomas, Claire, |
| 6 | George, |
This allows you to specify, in detail, what your preferences (or lack thereof)
are. You can vote against a candidate by placing them below
"none of the above", or really vote against someone by placing them even
farther below.
Similarly, you could decide you like Susan the best, but really just want
anyone except George to win:
| Rank | Candidate(s) |
| 1 | Susan, |
| 2 | Brooke, Claire, Dave, Jason, Rachel, Thomas, |
| 3 | (disapprove below this line) |
| 4 | George, |
Some ballots will be paper-based, and others will be electronic. All must
be processed by a computer, so paper ballots should be in a "pencil in the
dot" form for ease of data entry.
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