What is VoteVote for?

In a democracy worthy of the name, everyone's voice is heard (or represented with their explicit consent), and decisions require at least majority support: more people should support an idea than oppose it. If you elect your representatives by majority vote, and they make decisions by majority vote, a small group can overrule the will of almost 75% of voters - and up to half of all voters don't even have representatives who will express their protest.

Usually we elect people by First-Past-the-Post, a system that means that the candidate with the most votes wins, whether or not they have the support of a majority of those who voted. Many contests are totally predictable - you know who will win before the election starts because you live in a safe seat. You may also feel the need to vote tactically because you know that your preferred candidate or party cannot win.

But it can be done! VoteVote gives you the freedom to express your preferences in detail among many viable choices, and then counts your votes in a way that pursues the democratic goals noted above. It can usually accommodate almost everyone. As a result, voting actually becomes a fun, positive, and rewarding experience!

How does VoteVote pursue its goals?

VoteVote attempts to assign everybody to their favorite representative. To make this work, a few adjustments need to be made.

• Not all candidates can win.
  There are usually (and hopefully) more candidates than offices, so voters for candidates with the fewest votes must choose their next favorite.

• Representatives should have equal support.
  (This doesn't apply to single-winner elections.)
  Because representatives have equal voting power, they should each represent an equal number of voters, in order to satisfy the first goal listed above. In pursuit of this, if a candidate receives more than enough votes to get elected, the extra votes will be counted toward their next favorite candidate instead.

How are the results tallied?

It's easiest to understand this by just watching how the votes move on the results pages, but here are the detailed rules for the count.

1. In each round, each ballot not assigned to an elected candidate is assigned to its highest-ranked continuing candidate. (A "continuing" candidate is one who has not yet been elected or eliminated.)
2. If no continuing candidates are ranked on a ballot, it is assigned to its highest-ranked elected candidate, if any, or otherwise counted as a vote for "none of these" continuing candidates.
3. If any continuing candidates have a number of votes exceeding the threshold (defined below), they are declared elected.
4. If the number of continuing candidates does not exceed the number to be elected, all of them are declared elected, and the tally process is finished.
5. If any candidates have a number of votes exceeding the threshold, some ballots assigned to the candidate with the most votes are split into a fraction (defined below) that stays assigned to that candidate and a fraction that will count toward continuing candidates in subsequent rounds. Only the ballots newly assigned to the candidate in the round in which s/he won are subject to splitting.
6. If no candidates exceeded the threshold in this round, the last-place candidate is eliminated.
7. This process repeats until it is finished.

If the election is an "instant runoff" for a single winner, rule 5 has no effect, and the process stops immediately if any candidate reaches the threshold.

Hey! This is too complicated!

The rules behind VoteVote appear complex, but only because they put nearly all of the electoral controls within reach of the voter. With currently used methods, the outcome of most elections is determined primarily by the boundary commission which decides who lives in what constituency or ward and the party selection committees who decide who will be the candidates in your area. Casting a VoteVote vote is straightforward, but with current methods, voters must fret over strategy to avoid wasting their vote on a loser or on someone who would win anyway. Don't give up!

How many votes does a candidate need to win?

A candidate is guaranteed victory if his or her number of votes exceeds the minimum it could be without making it possible for too many candidates to win (that would be a majority in the case of a single-winner election). If each elected candidate achieves this, then a majority of the people elected represents a majority of the voting public.

The formula for the threshold is:

threshold = total votes # winners + 1

So if 100 votes were cast: Seats Votes needed 1 more than 50 2 more than 33 1/3 3 more than 25 4 more than 20

Note that it is possible for candidates to win without reaching the threshold if they are the only ones left. This is especially likely if a large number of ballots end up with all of their choices eliminated. In instant runoff (single-winner) elections, the threshold is traditionally recalculated in every round, excluding ballots with all choices eliminated from the total number of votes. This way, there are always two candidates left in the final round.

In a multi-winner election, how do you choose which votes stay assigned to a winner?

VoteVote assigns all ballots that counted for the winner in prior rounds. Among ballots that were newly assigned in the winning round, a fraction of each of ballot is redistributed to their next choices. This fraction is equal to the fraction of those votes above the threshold:

total votes - threshold

recently cast ballots

This ensures that all winners represent constituencies of similar size, and that people don't avoid voting for popular candidates, thinking that they will get elected anyway. It follows the first-come-first-serve rule to reduce the number of ballots that are split into fractions.

What happens if there is a tie?

Ties are not a very significant issue in public elections, because the number of ballots is large and ties are statistically rare. However, in a demonstration poll like this, they can happen frequently. Here, they are broken by comparing votes in successively previous rounds, or by random lot if that fails.

Is this the same as Instant Runoff Voting?

Yes, if there is one winner. This method works well for electing mayors. The multi-winner version should be used for MPs, councils, and MEPs. This gives more people representation than the usual method of dividing voters into wards or constituencies and using single-winner elections in each.

How well does it work?

VoteVote can routinely assign more than 90 percent of voters to representatives they support. This usually means that a decision by a majority of representatives reflects the will of a majority of voters. Winners receive nearly equal shares of votes, so that each vote corresponds to a nearly equal amount of legislative power. Each representative has the unanimous support of his/her voters. Voters have a large number of options because there is no appreciable 'spoiler' or 'vote-splitting' effect to scare away candidates. See for yourself by looking at the results pages on the VoteVote site!

Where did you get this newfangled idea?

This method of voting is used in the Northern Ireland and is also used by very many trade unions and membership organisations. It will also be used for council elections in Scotland from 2007. John Stuart Mill, the most well-known scholar on the theory of representative government, tried unsuccessfully to enact it when he served in the House of Commons. Australia and Ireland have used this method since the early 20th century.

Let's do this in our local and national elections!

If you are interested in promoting this method of voting, the Electoral Reform Society can provide more information and help you find like-minded people.

Why didn't the totals change after I voted?

They did - try pressing your browser's 'Refresh' button.

I still don't get it!

We want to make sure that everyone who uses this site leaves with a comfortable understanding of how it works. Please email questions to:

What do you do with my email address in a private poll?

Your email address will be used to send a confirmation of your vote. In the rare event that your vote is not properly recorded, you may be contacted. Voter address information is not used for any other purpose.

Send us your feedback!

VoteVote is an ongoing project, and user feedback is an essential part of it. Everybody has a slightly different experience and it helps to hear what parts you found illuminating and what parts you found confusing or cumbersome. Comments and inquiries can be directed to:

Acknowledgements

Steve Willett created the first web-based instant runoff poll in 2000, as an interface to ChoicePlus Pro. DemoChoice evolved from this into its own project. This site is was developed by The Hug based on the original DemoChoice code and is sponsored by Make My Vote Count.

The original source code for DemoChoice has been released under the GNU General Public License(sic) and is available for download from here.

If you are looking for a version with of the code used in this version then mail The Hug and we will do you a tarball.

DemoChoice Web Polls ©2002 Dave Robinson