Talk:Two-round system
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A 45% B 40% C 15%
ELECTION TWO Features candidates A and B in a "Run-off"
Advantages of a Run-Off Election
In a run-off election, the possibility of a "third party spoiler" is eliminated because no voter is forced to cast a vote for a candidate they do not favor. Here is an example:
If the US Presidential election were a run-off system, you might see this scenario. Voter 1 favors Ralph Nader. Voter 2 favors George W. Bush. Voter 3 favors John Kerry. In a regular election, assuming every voter votes their conscience, you see this result: Bush 1 Kerry 1 Nader 1 If voters vote strategically you might see this result: Voter 1 - Kerry Voter 2 - Bush Voter 3 - Kerry
Voter 3 has voted strategically, but in the process has voted against his preference. This is the heart of the spoiler issue in an electoral system. Voters who vote for a third candidate that is weaker than the top two, often prefer one of the top two candidates to the other. If they vote for the third candidate, their vote may be "wasted" because they could vote a candidate they prefer, and actually cause the candidate they least prefer to be elected by doing so. If they vote strategically, they will assure a candidate that they prefer is elected, but not the one they most prefer, which is the assumption in an electoral system.
A run-off system compensates by allowing voters to vote their first preference in the first election. In the second election, only the top two candidates are allowed to participate, so the possibility of a third party spoiler has been eliminated.
[edit] Requested move
Runoff voting → Two-round system – I know, I know, I know; all varieties of English are equally valid. However, the paragraph about terminology -- the last two sentences, complete with self-reference, are the smoking gun -- indicates that we need a move with either a redirect dab at its new location or a dab at the current location (probably unnecessary). Also see the discussion over longcase clock, a case of the inverse: the generic but uncommon name (longcase) instead of the common but non-inclusive one (grandfather). Moulder 06:56, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Survey
- The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.
The result of the debate was move and create a disambiguation page. -- tariqabjotu (joturner) 03:17, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
- Support. Moulder 06:56, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
- Weak support. This is a tricky one, but I think the matter of precision demands it be at the article about the specific type, with Runoff voting a disambiguation page (rather than a redirect). --Dhartung | Talk 07:35, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
- Support renaming this page and creating a disambiguation page at "Runoff voting". Kafziel 15:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
- Oppose. This is a common name for this. If necessary, add aticles for the way it is handled in other countries, but this works for the US. If anything, we could add a pointer to a dab page on Elections requiring voting again. Vegaswikian 19:38, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.
[edit] Discussion
My support is for the disambig option now despite previously thinking it unnecessary. (Or maybe a generic article about the concept of "runoff voting" and how it developed, if applicable.) This is mainly to distinguish between the exhaustive system and instant-runoff voting. The trickiness of this question is why I decided to be conservative instead of bold. Moulder 22:25, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
(Re: Vegaswikian) An article about generic runoff voting, i.e. comparing and contrasting the different systems and how the term runoff applies to them, should suffice; the initial paragraph can mention the fact that the US calls two-round voting runoff voting, and then each of the systems that employs runoffs can get a mention. Moulder 22:18, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
