Cardinal voting

OK, so pretend you and your 4 friends are trying to choose what game to play at a party. Each of you likes different games: Sally likes tag, Billy likes hide and seek, Timmy likes kickball, and so on. You want to make sure everyone is happy with the game choice. This is where cardinal voting comes in.

Cardinal voting is when you ask people to rank their preferences on a scale from 1 to however many options there are. So in this case, you'd ask Sally to rank tag, hide and seek, kickball, and any other games you all suggest from 1 to 3. 1 would be her favorite game, and 3 would be her least favorite. Then you'd do the same with Billy, Timmy, and your other friends.

Next, you add up all the rankings for each game. So let's say tag got a 6 from Sally, a 5 from Billy, a 3 from Timmy, and a 2 from you. That's a total ranking of 16 for tag. You do the same for all the other games.

Finally, you pick the game with the lowest total ranking. In this case, kickball had a total ranking of 14, so you all decide to play kickball!

That's how cardinal voting works. It lets everyone share their opinion and helps you make a decision that makes everyone happy.