The choice of election methods (voting
methods) should take account of the potential waste
of resources. Remember, we want efficiency. There are a number
of different types of voting that can be used:
1) One-voter-one-vote:
This method allows each voter only one vote for each seat of the
legislature that is allocated to the voting district. If there
were 5 people, you would be allowed to vote for only 1 person.
However, this can lead to a misleading outcome. For example: there
are 5 candidates for a single position. You can vote only once.
Your preferences are as follows: when each voter votes for his
first choice, 4 of the candidates would each get 25% of the vote,
the 5th candidate would receive no votes. But now consider the
voters' second choice. Assume that every voter prefers the 5th
candidate as their 2nd choice. Given these preferences, a good
case can be made that even though the 5th candidate would receive
no 1st place vote, he is most preferred by the voters. So this
method of voting is misleading because it fails to indicate the
voters' preferences for candidates that aren't chosen first. This
is not a very efficient or good method.
2) One-voter-multiple-vote:
This method allows the voter to vote for several candidates
for the same seat. A) Equal point
method: Assume that there are
7 candidates and that you can vote for 3 of them, and that equal
weight will be given to each vote (1 point). In this case the
candidate with the highest number of votes wins. B)
Weighted point method: 1st choice gets 3 points, 2nd
gets 2 points, and 3rd gets 1 point again the candidate with the
highest number of points would win. C)
Points-assigned-by-voter method:
Each voter can split up their total number of points however
they want among the candidates. However, one can see how this
starts to get confusing.
3) Approval Voting: With
this method you choose among the candidates on the basis of whether
you approve of them. You can vote for none or all of them depending
on whether you approve of them. That is if you approve of 2 of
the 5 you vote only for 2 of them.
4) Pluralities and Majorities: Majority
voting can take the form of 50% or 2/3's, etc…
Plurality means that the person
with the largest number of votes, regardless of whether it is
a majority wins.
I mention these because they are so many different methods (which
I myself did not realize) and because the method used should be
the most efficient depending on the situation. Also, inefficiencies
arise from voter and candidate behavior. This being said, we must
be aware of people acting strategically and not truthfully, which
leads to numerous inefficiencies.