The Five Methods of Voting
Chapter 1
The Plurality Method
Its one of the most simplest (and less tedious) ways of voting. Whatever candidate has the most first place votes, is the winner! The winner could also be known as the majority candidate, but it depends if there are 3 or more players. If there is a majority candidate, then that candidate should be the winner of the election.
The Borda Count Method
In this method, each place on a ballot is assigned a certain number of points. For example, if there are a total of 5 places, then 5th place will only have 1 point, 4th place will have 2 points, 3rd place will have 3 points, 2nd place will have 4 points, and 1st place will have 5 points. Depending on how many times they were elected in each place/position, each of the candidate's points are added up together and whoever has the highest total is the winner!
The Plurality With Elimination Method
In this method, it starts off with whoever has the least first place votes, then that candidate is eliminated. Each time a candidate is eliminated, the one under the eliminated candidate is then moved up to his or her place. After that, the votes are recounted. This process is continued until there is a candidate with the majority of the first place votes. Whoever it is, will be the winner!
The Method of Pairwise Comparisons
In this method, also known as head to head comparisons, each candidate will be pinned against each other. Pretty much like a round robin tournament. On each ballot, if a candidate gets first place, then he or she will get a point. If a scenario ever occurs where it is a tie, both players get half a point. Whoever won the most pairwise comparisons, is the winner!
Ranking
The tittle pretty much gives it away, but in this method, it will not only give a first place winner, but also a second, third, and fourth place winner as well. Ranking pretty much applies to the other methods of voting. You go through the same process of each method, then you rank each candidate based on how many points they got. Whoever has the most points is in 1st place. Whoever has the least amount of points will be in last place.