ElectionLibrary
This will be an app/library implementing various election methods in React/Typescript, comparable to https://civs1.civs.us/ or https://www.condorcet.vote/, except made by me. Will support at least first-past-the-post and instant runoff voting, and hopefully plugin extensibility for other methods. Must also note the downsides of various methods from Building A Better Ballot and Simulating alternate voting systems.
Built Using
Development Roadmap (Subject to Change)
- Create my own poll(s) and ballots using FPTP voting
- Add capacity to create poll using approval voting, and thus the ability to use different voting methods.
- Add capacity and UX for user to create polls, including selecting method and image/text for options.
- Extract functionality to library, sufficient for user to create their own poll on their own site/service.
Planned Voting Methods
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First-past-the-post voting, AKA the usual method in American elections. Everybody casts a vote for the one (1) candidate they support most, and whoever has the biggest pile of votes wins.
Pros:
- Simple to understand and implement.
Cons:
- Vulnerable to splitting the vote if there are more than two options; if the election goes 30% for one person, 30% for another, and 40% for a third, the third person will win despite being opposed by 60% of the voters.
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Approval voting. Similar to FPTP above, but voters can select multiple candidates.
Pros:
- Simple to understand and implement.
Cons:
- No guarantee that any winner will actually be supported by a majority.
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Instant runoff voting. Each voter ranks candidates by their preference, A-B-C or whatever they prefer. Ballots are tallied, and if any candidate doesn't have a majority/sufficient plurality, the lowest candidate is dropped and their ballots get applied to the second-/third-/etc-ranked choice on the ballot.
Pros:
- Largely protected against vote-splitting. If 3% of the ballots are for A with B ranked second, 48% are for B, and 49% are for C, A will get dropped from contention and the ballots will be applied to B, giving them the victory.
Cons:
- New and unfamiliar.
- Liable to pick candidate without majority support. If the votes are split 30-30-40, with no second choices, nobody gets a majority.
- Still vulnerable to spoilers, if a 3rd candidate is able to take votes from the likely winner. Suppose there are three candidates A/B/C, where C is aligned with A and opposed to B. If 29 ballots rank the candidates A-B-C, 31 rank them C-A-B, and 40 rank them B-A-C, candidate A will be dropped and their votes applied to B, giving B a victory 69-31. However, if C did not run, then A would win 60-40. Likewise, if some of the C supporters decided to vote A-C-B, then C would be dropped in the first round and A would win.