Taking a look at
4 voting methods
Plurality voting
Plurality voting lets voters pick just one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins.
Alternative methods for choosing representation
Click on each box to learn more
Voting is the cornerstone of U.S. democracy, but the framers of the Constitution left details to the states. Article I, Section 4, says, "The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of (choosing) Senators." For the first half century of U.S. elections, voters didn’t use paper ballots. Those allowed to vote (only white, land-owning men) went to the local courthouse and publicly cast their votes out loud. The first paper ballots were nothing more than scraps of paper on which a voter wrote his candidates' names and dropped them into the ballot box. The U.S. has over 8,000 election jurisdictions, and more than 200 use an alternative voting method for some or all of their elections. Here are four alternative methods for choosing representation:
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Resistance to "spoilers": Low Prospects for U.S. adoption: High
Note: A spoiler is a non-winning candidate whose presence on the ballot affects which candidate wins.
Approval voting
Note: A spoiler is a non-winning candidate whose presence on the ballot affects which candidate wins.
Approval voting lets voters pick all the candidates they want—one, two, or however many—and no ranking is necessary. Again, the candidate with the most votes wins. This method is used in two U.S. cities — Fargo, N.D., and St. Louis.
Ranked choice voting
Note: A spoiler is a non-winning candidate whose presence on the ballot affects which candidate wins.
Resistance to "spoilers": High Prospects for U.S. adoption: High
Ranked choice voting is also known as instant runoff voting or RCV. This method requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference, with the candidate having the fewest first-choice votes being eliminated in each round until a candidate has more than half the remaining first-choice votes. Many in-use ballots limit the rankings to three.
Range voting
Note: A spoiler is a non-winning candidate whose presence on the ballot affects which candidate wins.
Resistance to "spoilers": Medium Prospects for U.S. adoption: Low
Range voting is also called score voting. It allows voters to assign a score to each candidate, with the highest-scoring candidate winning the election.
Resistance to "spoilers": Medium Prospects for U.S. adoption: Medium
Sources: U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Fairvote.org
By Cassandra West