Voting methods

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

A unanimous vote requires all votes to be cast for the same choice in order for that choice to win. In other words, the threshold for approval is one hundred percent of the the votes cast when using constructive abstention.

A simple majority requires more than half of the votes to be cast for the same choice in order for that choice to win. In other words, at least fifty percent of the votes, rounded down to the nearest integer, plus one more vote, must be cast for the same choice.

A super-majority is any threshold greater than fifty percent and less than one hundred percent, rounded down to the nearest integer, plus one more vote. The method for setting the threshold must be decided prior to the election.

An approval referendum or approval vote in a legislature is a vote on a question where the only choices are “yes” or “no” and write-ins and abstentions are not counted.

For approval referendums or approval votes in a legislature where the requirement for approval is a unanimous vote, use the unanimity method with constructive abstention.

For approval referendums or approval votes in a legislature where the requirement for approval is for a super-majority to vote “yes”, use the majority method with the required threshold and constructive abstention.

For approval referendums or approval votes in a legislature where the requirement for approval is a simple majority to vote “yes”, use the simple majority method with constructive abstention.

For referendums where there are three, four, or five choices, and where the intent is to identify the option with the most popular support and write-ins won’t be counted, use ranked choice voting.

For all other referendums with more than two choices or where write-ins are counted, use the plurality method.

When two candidates are running for a single available seat, and write-ins won’t be counted, use the simple majority method.

When three or more candidates are running for a single seat, use plurality voting with or without write-ins in a primary round to identify the top two candidates for the election, and then use a simple majority method in the election.

When two or more candidates are running for two or more available seats, use plurality voting with or without write-ins and assign candidates to seats starting with the candidate who got the most votes and proceeding, in decreasing order of the number of votes, to the candidate who got the fewest votes, until no more seats are available.

When three, four, or five candidates are running for a single available seat, and where the intent is to identify the candidate with the most popular support and write-ins won’t be counted, use the ranked choice voting method.

When more than five candidates are running for a single available seat, and where the intent is to identify the candidate with the most popular support and to count write-ins, use plurality voting in a primary round to identify up to five candidates for the election, and then use the ranked choice voting method without write-ins in an election among those five candidates to determine the winner.

For all other elections, use the plurality voting method.

Intent:

Elections, referendums, and votes in the legislature should use the most appropriate voting method for the ballot question. Simple and efficient methods should be selected over more complicated methods when there are no significant disadvantages to using them. More complicated voting methods are appropriate where they solve specific problems that arise with the simpler methods.

Constructive abstention prevents individuals from blocking the democratic process. People who want to participate in the democratic process must show up and vote. People who do not want to participate should not be able to block progress for everyone else. The only time when a blocking abstention is appropriate is when the number of people eligible to vote is small, such as ten or less, and the measure requires unanimous support to pass. In these situations there is a real possibility that someone is delayed through no fault of their own, or that someone is delayed through malfeasance due to the expectation that they would vote against the measure.

Discussion:

For approval referendums or approval votes in a legislature where the the only choices are “yes” or “no” and the requirement for approval is for a super-majority (any threshold higher than 50% + 1, including unanimity) to vote “yes”, only the majority method works because a specific threshold is required and the result is either approval or rejection of the ballot question.

For referendums where there are more than two choices, and where a super-majority is not needed to select a choice, the plurality method is simple and effective to determine which choice has the most support, even if it’s not a majority.

When a single candidate is running for a single available seat, the simple majority (50% + 1) and the plurality methods yield the same result, and it doesn’t make sense to use ranked choice voting when there is only one candidate to rank for each seat.

When two candidates are running for two available seats, or three candidates are running for three available seats, and so on, the plurality method is suitable to determine the winners (anyone who receives at least one vote), and it doesn’t make sense to use ranked choice voting when there is only one candidate to rank for each seat.

When two candidates are running for a single available seat and write-ins are not counted, the simple majority and the plurality methods yield the same result when counting only votes that were cast, and it doesn’t make sense to use ranked choice voting when there can only be one round of voting.

When three or more candidates are running for two available seats, or four or more candidates are running for three available seats, and so on, the plurality method is suitable to determine the winners in a single round (the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and all others win a seat), and it doesn’t make sense to use ranked choice voting when there can only be one round of voting.

When two or more candidates are running for one or more available seats and write-ins are counted, the simple majority method may not yield a result and require a run-off election, whereas the plurality method will always yield results and if any of the write-ins are determined to be ineligible they can be simply skipped so next candidate wins the seat.

When three, four, or five candidates are running for a single available seat and write-ins are not allowed, the simple majority method may require a run-off election if no candidate got a majority of votes, and the plurality method may result in a winner who does not have the support of a majority of the voters, while ranked choice voting solves both of these problems by determining a winner in a single election and ensuring that the winner has the support of a majority of voters.

When more than five candidates are running for a single seat and write-ins are not counted, it becomes cumbersome to rank all of them in order. In this case, the election should either use plurality voting method in a primary contest to identify the top two candidates for a simple majority election, or there should be a primary election using the plurality voting method to identify up to five candidates who have the most support and then use ranked choice voting in an election to determine the winner among those candidates.

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