Currently you click, you vote, all your points go into the one choice. While straightforward, this is not a great way to actually tell what the most popular choice is. It would be nice if there was a backup choice option, where you choose your preferred option and a secondary option, so when the votes are being counted if your favourite has the least votes then your votes are passed on to your backup.

That's called a Runoff Vote. We're not doing that at the moment.



Also...what if...



A has 10 votes

B has 20 votes

C has 26 votes



All the voters for B chose A as their backup, and all voters for A chose B as their backup. (Assume that all voters for C do not chose a second).



Who wins?

Draco18s wrote:
That's called a Runoff Vote. We're not doing that at the moment.

Thank you, I knew it had a name but I couldn't remember it. It was driving me nuts.

Draco18s wrote:


Also...what if...



A has 10 votes

B has 20 votes

C has 26 votes



All the voters for B chose A as their backup, and all voters for A chose B as their backup. (Assume that all voters for C do not chose a second).



Who wins?

A gets eliminated for having the lowest number of primary votes and is removed from the system. A's votes then go to B, making B the winner.



Look at it this way; If A had not been included at all, 30 people would have chosen B and only 26 would have chosen C. Therefore B is the more popular option of the two. Yet without a runoff vote, C would have won.

What if all of C's voters had A as their secondary?



If we reallocate C's votes (it's not winning if B is winning) back to A, then A would actually have 36 votes (the original 10, plus all of C) beating out B's new tally of 30 (original, plus the reallocated A votes). In such a scenario, everyone "liked" A to some degree, although most people liked "something else" better. Having C win (original vote) would satisfy slightly less than half of the voting population (their primary choice). Having B win (run-off) would satisfy slightly more than half the voting population (their primary or secondary choice). But having A win would result in everyone saying "I can live with that" (EVERYONE's primary or secondary choice).



This type of behind-the-scenes secondary voting isn't actually easy to solve without an actual second vote, where everyone is aware that there will be a run-off.



Coincidentally, with the custom faction vote, this is the third time people get to vote. There have been two run-offs prior to this, narrowing down 70 (!) entries to a final three. We really don't need another run-off.

Draco18s wrote:
What if all of C's voters had A as their secondary?

It wouldn't matter as it would have been removed.



I get where this is coming from as far too often the votes are getting split between two cool things and the garbage third option is winning by default.

Abigail wrote:
It wouldn't matter as it would have been removed.



I get where this is coming from as far too often the votes are getting split between two cool things and the garbage third option is winning by default.

This is something I've noticed too especially with the Sherendyn vote