History and use of instant-runoff voting
Okay kiddo, so you know how when we vote, we usually just pick one person or option that we like the best? Well, instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a little different.
Think of it like this: let's say you and your friends are trying to decide what game to play at recess. There are three options: kickball, four-square, and red rover. Everyone gets to vote for their favorite game, and you count up the votes.
Uh-oh, it looks like no one picked red rover! But wait, some of your friends didn't really like kickball, they just voted for it because they thought it had the best chance of winning.
That's where IRV comes in. Instead of just voting for one option, everybody gets to rank the options from favorite to least favorite. So maybe you pick four-square as your first choice, kickball as your second choice, and red rover as your third choice.
Now, let's say nobody got a majority of votes (that means more than half). That's where IRV comes in handy. You start by eliminating the game that got the least amount of votes (sorry red rover!), and all the people who ranked that game first now have their votes count towards their second choice.
So if someone voted for red rover as their first choice, their vote now goes towards their second choice (maybe kickball). Then you count up the votes again, and keep eliminating the least popular game and redistributing the votes until one option get a majority of votes.
IRV can be really helpful when there are multiple candidates running for something, like a political election. Instead of worrying about "wasting" your vote on an independent candidate who might not have a chance of winning, you can still vote for them as your first choice and then rank other candidates in order of preference. It also can help to make sure that the winner actually has the support of the majority of people, not just the most votes.
Overall, IRV is a way of making sure that everyone's voice is heard and that we find the option that the most people feel good about.
Think of it like this: let's say you and your friends are trying to decide what game to play at recess. There are three options: kickball, four-square, and red rover. Everyone gets to vote for their favorite game, and you count up the votes.
Uh-oh, it looks like no one picked red rover! But wait, some of your friends didn't really like kickball, they just voted for it because they thought it had the best chance of winning.
That's where IRV comes in. Instead of just voting for one option, everybody gets to rank the options from favorite to least favorite. So maybe you pick four-square as your first choice, kickball as your second choice, and red rover as your third choice.
Now, let's say nobody got a majority of votes (that means more than half). That's where IRV comes in handy. You start by eliminating the game that got the least amount of votes (sorry red rover!), and all the people who ranked that game first now have their votes count towards their second choice.
So if someone voted for red rover as their first choice, their vote now goes towards their second choice (maybe kickball). Then you count up the votes again, and keep eliminating the least popular game and redistributing the votes until one option get a majority of votes.
IRV can be really helpful when there are multiple candidates running for something, like a political election. Instead of worrying about "wasting" your vote on an independent candidate who might not have a chance of winning, you can still vote for them as your first choice and then rank other candidates in order of preference. It also can help to make sure that the winner actually has the support of the majority of people, not just the most votes.
Overall, IRV is a way of making sure that everyone's voice is heard and that we find the option that the most people feel good about.
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