Instant-runoff voting
Hey kiddo, have you ever played a game where you had to choose your favorite toy, but then found out that your friend voted for a different toy, and you were not happy with your choice? Well, that's what traditional voting is like. But have you heard of instant-runoff voting (IRV), which makes voting more fair and accurate?
IRV is like a game where you choose your favorite toy and then get a second chance to vote if your first choice didn't get enough votes. Here's how it works:
Say five friends want to vote on a vacation destination: Hawaii, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and Japan. They each get one vote, and the one with the most votes wins. But what if four of them vote for different places, and only one friend votes for Italy, making it the winner even though most of them didn't want it?
In IRV, they would have a re-vote. Each person would rank their choices from 1st to 5th place. If no one gets more than 50% of the votes (three people in this case), then the candidate with the fewest 1st choice votes (Italy) is removed, and each voter's second choice is added to the remaining candidates. This process is repeated until one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes.
So, in the example, Italy gets the least amount of 1st place votes, and it's removed. The people who voted for Italy now have their 2nd choice counted. Say two of them voted for Spain, one voted for Mexico, and one voted for Hawaii. Spain now has three votes, which is more than 50%, so it wins the election.
IRV allows voters to choose the candidate they really prefer, rather than settling for a compromise candidate or "throwing away" their vote on a weaker candidate. It can also reduce the number of negative campaigns and increase voter turnout, as people feel more engaged and satisfied with the process.
Does that make sense, kiddo? IRV is like a fun game that helps everyone get a fair chance to win!
IRV is like a game where you choose your favorite toy and then get a second chance to vote if your first choice didn't get enough votes. Here's how it works:
Say five friends want to vote on a vacation destination: Hawaii, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and Japan. They each get one vote, and the one with the most votes wins. But what if four of them vote for different places, and only one friend votes for Italy, making it the winner even though most of them didn't want it?
In IRV, they would have a re-vote. Each person would rank their choices from 1st to 5th place. If no one gets more than 50% of the votes (three people in this case), then the candidate with the fewest 1st choice votes (Italy) is removed, and each voter's second choice is added to the remaining candidates. This process is repeated until one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes.
So, in the example, Italy gets the least amount of 1st place votes, and it's removed. The people who voted for Italy now have their 2nd choice counted. Say two of them voted for Spain, one voted for Mexico, and one voted for Hawaii. Spain now has three votes, which is more than 50%, so it wins the election.
IRV allows voters to choose the candidate they really prefer, rather than settling for a compromise candidate or "throwing away" their vote on a weaker candidate. It can also reduce the number of negative campaigns and increase voter turnout, as people feel more engaged and satisfied with the process.
Does that make sense, kiddo? IRV is like a fun game that helps everyone get a fair chance to win!
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