Understanding the voting systems available on OpenVoting
OpenVoting supports multiple voting methods to accommodate different organizational needs and decision-making contexts.
Each voter selects one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins. Simple and widely recognized.
Voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate has a majority, the lowest-ranked is eliminated and votes are redistributed.
Open surveys for gathering feedback. Anyone with the link can participate. Ideal for gauging sentiment on topics.
Plurality voting, also known as "first-past-the-post" or "winner-take-all," is the simplest and most commonly used voting method. Each voter casts a single vote for their preferred candidate, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins the election.
The winner does not need to receive a majority (more than 50%) of the votes. They simply need more votes than any other candidate. This makes plurality voting straightforward to understand and implement.
Consider an election for club president with three candidates. Each of the 100 members casts one vote.
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Alice | 42 | 42% |
| Bob | 35 | 35% |
| Carol | 23 | 23% |
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), also known as Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference (1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc.). If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.
Voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice have their votes transferred to their second choice. This process continues until one candidate achieves a majority.
Using the same 100-voter election, but now voters rank their preferences.
| Candidate | Votes | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Alice | 42 | Continuing |
| Bob | 35 | Continuing |
| Carol | 23 | Eliminated |
No candidate has 51+ votes. Carol is eliminated and her votes transfer to voters' next choice.
Of Carol's 23 voters: 15 ranked Bob as their 2nd choice, 8 ranked Alice as their 2nd choice.
| Candidate | Previous | Transferred | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bob | 35 | +15 | 50 |
| Alice | 42 | +8 | 50 |
Note: In a tie scenario, additional tiebreaker rules would apply based on election configuration.
Opinion polls are open surveys designed to gather feedback and gauge sentiment on various topics. Unlike formal elections, opinion polls are accessible to anyone with the link and do not require voter registration or authentication by default.
Poll creators define a question and multiple options. Participants select their preferred option, and results are aggregated in real-time. Optional email verification can be enabled to prevent duplicate responses.
A team shares a poll to decide their next team outing activity.
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