Ballot

Ballot in the United States

Ballot Definition

A paper bearing the names of candidates for designated offices, and delivered by electors to the election officers in expressing (in accordance with the definition of Ballot based on the Cyclopedic Law Dictionary) their choice for such offices. It is usually printed, and is in various prescribed forms, especially in states which have adopted the Australian ballot system, or modifications of it.

Ranked Ballots

Ranked ballot is a ballot where the voter ranks the choices in order of preference. For example, the voter would label her first choice with 1, her second choice with 2, etc.

Ranked ballots gather significantly more information from the voters than common pick one of N choices ballots. Coupled with a good algorithm for choosing the winners (e.g. the Condorcet method), ranked ballots minimize tactical voting (i.e. voting that does not express the voter’s true preferences) and the distortions that brings to elections. Ranked ballots are not widely used in the United States and their adoption is difficult because, some argue, they would slightly weaken the two-party system. There are many methods for deciding the outcome of a ranked ballot election; a popular one, but maybe inferior to Condorcet methods, is instant-runoff voting (IRV). IRV is, they observe, still better than first past the post voting, however.

ballot Background

Resources

See Also

  • Ballot Access
  • Scratching
  • Primaries
  • Campaigns
  • Candidates
  • Nonpartisan Election
  • Electoral College Selection

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