Voting Methods: A Simulation

In: Public choice, Band 25, S. 19-30

Abstract

The purpose of voting is to choose from among alternatives available. Voting methods which record only the most preferred alternative have been criticized for failing to take the order of alternatives into account. 2 criteria have been proposed as having adequately resolved this criticism. The Condorcet criterion selects that alternative which defeats every other alternative in a pairwise election. The Borda criterion, as a supplement when the Condorcet criterion fails, accounts for the order of the alternatives. These methods are taken as standard, & several other voting methods (plurality, runoff, & exhaustive) are compared by using pseudo-randomly generated data to depict voter preferences. These randomly generated preferences are submitted to each voting method for scoring. 10,000 elections were simulated in this fashion & the winners selected by each method were compared. The plurality method disagreed with the other methods in 13 to 34% of the elections. It disagreed with the Condorcet & Borda criteria in 31 & 24% of the elections. This commonly used voting method selects the "wrong" candidate in a large proportion of cases, & its validity as a method of selecting the most preferred alternative is questioned. 6 Tables. AA.