How ranked voting works

Instead of picking one option, each voter puts the options in order: first choice, second choice, and so on. Leave out any you don't want at all. The count then uses those rankings to find the option the group as a whole prefers.

An example: what time should the hike start?

Thirty hikers choose between 9:00, 9:30, 10:00. They rank them like this:

Hikers	Their ranking
11	9:00 → 9:30
10	10:00 → 9:30
9	9:30

Almost everyone can live with 9:30. But how the votes are counted changes the answer.

Instant run-off

Count everyone's first choice. If one option has more than half, it wins. If not, remove the option with the fewest first choices and move those ballots to their next choice. Repeat.

Here 9:30 has the fewest first choices (9), so it is removed first. Its voters ranked nothing else, so their ballots stop counting. 9:00 then beats 10:00 by 11 to 10. Instant run-off picks 9:00.

Condorcet: who wins every head-to-head?

Compare every pair of options. 9:30 is preferred to 9:00 by 19 hikers to 11, and to 10:00 by 20 to 10. It beats every other option one-on-one. Condorcet picks 9:30.

The center squeeze. A compromise that many people rank second can be knocked out early by instant run-off. Condorcet counting finds it. RankedVoter lets the person who creates a vote pick the method, and every results page shows what the other method would have chosen.

What about ties?

If the count ends in a tie, RankedVoter says so, and the person who created the vote picks the winner from the tied options.
When two options tie for removal in instant run-off, the one fewer people ranked at all goes first. If they are still level, a random draw decides, and its seed is shown so anyone can check it.
The order options were entered never decides anything.

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