On Sat, 2012-12-15 at 02:36 +0100, Pascal Bleser wrote:

Could you explain what you mean with a "runoff" ?

cheers

In an election to fill one position, when no candidate gets 50% of the votes, a runoff election may be held with just the top two finishers. E.g. say 40% of the people like Candidate A, 32% like Candidate B, and 28% like Candidate C. But B and C are really similar and B/C supporters don't like A. If there's no runoff, then A gets 40% of the vote and wins, even though 60% of the electorate would prefer B or C. (That's what happens in almost every election in the USA.) If there is a runoff, C will be eliminated and people will vote on just A and B. The people who voted for C switch to B, who gets 60% and wins, which is the "right" result. Though I don't know how that works when the candidates are running for multiple open seats. For something like this, approval voting is best. That's where you can give one vote to as many candidates as you want, then the N candidates with the most votes fill the N open positions. Really simple to run, and the N people with the most approval always win. Happy December! Michael Catanzaro