Voting Methods and Fairness Criteria

Vocabulary flashcards defining key election methods, mathematical voting concepts, and fairness criteria from the lecture transcript.

Preference Schedule

A schedule or table that shows the number of voters who chose each specific ranking order of candidates.

Plurality Method

An election method where only first-choice votes are considered, and the candidate with the most first-place votes is declared the winner.

Majority

Receiving more than $50\%$ of the total votes cast in an election.

Plurality

Receiving the most votes in an election, which may or may not be a majority.

Condorcet Candidate

A candidate who wins in every head-to-head matchup against any other candidate.

Fairness Criterion

A statement or condition that represents an ideal property of a fair election method.

Condorcet Criterion

A fairness criterion stating that if a Condorcet candidate exists, that candidate should win the election.

Monotonicity Criterion

A fairness criterion that can be violated by certain voting systems such as ranked-choice or instant runoff voting.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)

A voting method where voters rank all candidates, and if no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated and their votes are redistributed until a majority winner is determined.

Borda Count

A point-system voting method where candidates receive points based on their position on each voter's ranking (e.g., $4$ points for first, $3$ for second, $2$ for third, and $1$ for last place) and the total points are tallied.