ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ranked voting

Imagine you and your friends are trying to decide where to have your birthday party. But you can’t agree on one place. Some of your friends like pizza, others like burgers, and some like tacos. So, to make everyone happy, you decide to have a vote.

But instead of just picking one option, everyone gets to rank their choices from 1 to 3, with 1 being their favorite and 3 being their least favorite. Then you count up all the votes and find out which option was ranked the highest by everyone.

This is known as ranked voting. It’s a way of voting where you get to rank your choices, rather than just picking one. This makes it easier to figure out what everyone really wants, especially when there are a lot of choices to pick from.

For example, in an election, there may be three candidates running for office. Instead of just picking one, voters get to rank them 1, 2, or 3. Then all the votes are counted up, and the candidate with the most 1st place votes wins.

But if no candidate gets a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and those votes are redistributed to the candidates that those voters ranked 2nd. This process continues until one candidate has a majority of first place votes.

This helps ensure that the winner has the support of a majority of voters, not just a small number of passionate supporters. It also allows for more diverse candidates to run, as voters don’t have to worry about “wasting” their vote on a candidate who isn’t leading in the polls.

In summary, ranked voting is a way of voting where you get to rank your choices, making it easier to find out what everyone really wants. It's used in elections to ensure that the winner has the support of a majority of voters, and to allow more diverse candidates to run.