Time for Ranked Ballots

Sample ranked choice ballot counting

Let’s pretend we are having a ranked choice voting election for our favorite character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We’ll look at three different imaginary ballots for this election alongside imaginary vote totals. In the example, the candidate that each ballot’s vote goes to in any particular round is circled in red.

So here are our three ballots, plus the vote count for all the imaginary ballots in this election’s first round of tallying. As you can see, all three of the ballots have been filled out correctly, with different candidates picked as choices 1, 2, and 3.

What would an example of not filling it out correctly be? Well, people ask me a lot if they’re allowed to pick the same candidate for choices 1, 2, and 3. No. If you want to do this, it means you don’t understand how ranked choice voting works. The only way your second choice vote will ever count is if your first choice candidate loses and is no longer in the running.

If you really only want to vote for one candidate, then that’s fine. You are not obligated to pick a second or third choice.

Okay, let’s move on. Since no candidate in the first round received 50% of the vote, we move on to a second round of counting.

Since Angel received the lowest number of votes, he is now eliminated from the running. He had fifteen first choice votes. Those votes have now gone to the other candidates, based on the second choice votes of people who had picked Angel as their first choice.

Since none of the ballots we’re looking at picked Angel for their first choice, all of their original first choice candidates remain the candidate their vote is going to. The only people whose second choice votes count are the ones who picked Angel, the eliminated candidate, as their first choice.

Okay, since we still do not have any candidate with more than 50% of the vote, we move on to a third round of counting.

Since Angel was eliminated after the first round of counting, he is still out. Cordelia had the smallest vote total after the second round of counting, which means she gets eliminated.

All the people who voted for Cordelia as their first choice have now had their votes transferred to their second choice candidate. You can see this in sample ballot number three. That voter had selected Cordelia as their first choice. Now that she’s out of the running, their vote goes to Xander, who they had selected as their second choice.

The other two ballots picked someone for their first choice who has not yet been eliminated, so their votes are still going to their first choice candidate.

Since we still have no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote, we will move on to a fourth round of counting.

Since Xander had the lowest vote total in the last round, he is now eliminated. In the third of our example ballots, Xander had been marked as the second choice. Since he is now out of the running, this vote is now going to Buffy, who the voter had marked as their third choice. For the other two ballots, their first choice candidate remains in the running. Therefore, their vote is still going to their first choice candidate.

And still, we have no candidate receiving over 50% of the vote. That means we are on to yet another round.

Since Giles received the lowest number of votes in the last count, he is now eliminated. His votes are now redistributed among the remaining candidates according to what those voters choose as their second or third choice vote.

In the second example ballot, the voter had picked Giles for their first choice. Now that he’s gone, their vote goes to Willow, who they had picked as second choice.

Since only two candidates remain, the one with the highest number of votes wins.

Buffy got the biggest number of first place votes in this election, and after several rounds of elimination, ended up the winner. This is the case in almost every ranked choice voting election.

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It’s plausible to argue that the 43% who cast ballots voluntarily bound themselves to the outcome, i.e. “consented to be governed” by the winner whether that winner was “their” candidate or some other. It’s not, however, plausible to argue the same of the 57% who either chose not to vote or were forbidden to do so. “The consent of the governed” is clearly a superstition, no matter how many electoral victories the priesthood yanks out of its magic boxes.
Remember, Remember, Don’t Vote in November

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