The following is an extract from our short explainer “Things You Might Not Know About Elections.” You can find the entire explainer here: https://cffad.org/things-you-might-not-know-about-elections/
How Winners are Defined
Republics and other representative democracies around the world choose from a wide range of options for how votes translate into who sits in legislative bodies and who controls the executive branch. Elections can be very different from country to country, state to state, or even from city to city! Each choice comes with its own set of pros and cons. We review only a few here. Winners can be defined in terms of:
- Who has the largest vote share (plurality)
- Who has the majority vote share
- Who has the broadest support (ranked-choice)
- Who is the most tolerable choice (approval voting)
It is also possible to set up a system where every political party has some representation, proportional to their vote share.
If you would like to learn about the pros and cons of these voting systems, please click here: https://cffad.org/things-you-might-not-know-about-elections/
Your key takeaway is that elections can take many forms depending on circumstances and needs. Tomorrow, we will take a look at how elections are administered.
If you want to learn more about elections, we have a 9-part course, each part is a 20-minute read. Easy! Click here: https://cffad.org/things-you-might-not-know-about-elections/
