this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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... wait, Sri Lanka has ranked ballots! What the fuck? They're not even using Plurality, they're doing RCV!
Ranked Choice is a hot mess on its own, but-- oh for fuck's sake I'll just use the example I always use. Say an election goes like this:
40% vote A > B > C.
35% vote C > B > A.
25% vote B > C > A.
Plurality says A wins, because Plurality sucks. You don't even need a bare majority. You just need everybody else to split up.
RCV says C wins: B has the fewest top votes, so they're eliminated. The race becomes 40% A > C versus 60% C > A. Better... but still wrong, because 65% of people would prefer B > C.
Condorcet methods like Ranked Pairs get that right. They model every runoff: A vs B is 40-60, A vs C is 40-60, B vs C is 65-35. B wins every 1v1 and is obviously the best candidate according to these voters. The supermajority prefers B.
And of course Approval Voting is just letting people check multiple names, and it somehow matches Condorcet results when enough people vote, because you are unique, just like everybody else. Genuinely there is no good reason we're not doing Approval by default.
In theory, yes, but so few (~2%) people use it that in practice it is first past the post.