The Undemocratic Side of Voting
The Undemocratic Side of Voting
by Michael Hall Politics Index
Original Article from Generation Cobweb
In a democratic form of government, the way the populace voices its opinion is through voting. When there are just two options to choose from, it is a relatively easy process as the majority vote always wins. However, when there are three options or more, the elected option does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the majority. We have seen this recently during the 2000 presidential election. When examining the Plurality, Approval, and Borda Count voting methods, we begin to see that voting is not as democratic as initially believed.
The first voting method we will examine is Plurality voting. “In plurality voting, each voter votes for one person, and the candidate with the most votes wins” (Burger 684). This method may seem the most familiar as it is the method used in the United States presidential elections. For example, let us say that there is a pool of a hundred people voting for three candidates. Thirty of the people vote for Candidate A while another thirty vote for Candidate B. This leaves Candidate C with forty votes, which is the most votes out of the three. He therefore wins the election due to his receiving the most votes. It seems democratic at first, but when closely examined the flaws begin to appear. The problem arises because Candidate C wins this election even though 60%, which is the majority of the population, voted against him. Because of this, Candidate C does not truly represent the majority of the people, but the minority.
The next voting method we will examine is Approval voting. In Approval Voting, “the outcome of the election is determined not by the preference ordering of the …voters but by how many candidates each chose to vote for” (Burger 689). Let us use an expanded election example to see how this works. Let us say that there are five candidates: A, B, C, D, and E. Now let’s say that Candidate’s A and B share similar views and their policies are going in the same direction. Forty percent of the population shares these views, so most of the voters vote for both A and B because each one is just as good as the other. However, Candidate’s C, D, and E, all have radically different views. And each of these candidates have a following of twenty percent of the population. Due to wide differences in policies, the voters in this situation will only vote for their candidate as none of the others are sufficient. When the votes are tallied up, we find that both Candidate’s A and B have around forty votes, while the rest of the candidates only have twenty. So now Candidate’s A and B will be competing for the win while the rest are clearly out of the race. Once again, there are problems with this scenario. Because of how this method works, Candidate’s A and B were able to get additional votes off of the other’s respective pools because of the similarities between the two. They are both competing for the win while sixty percent of the population is against them. Neither one clearly represents the majority.
The final voting method we will examine is known as the Borda Count. “The Borda Count is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which each voter rank-orders the candidates” (“Borda”). Let’s use the same candidates but rearrange them a bit. Candidate’s A, B, and C, are on the left side of the political continuum, while Candidate’s D and E are on the right. Each candidate has its respective group of voters in the population: a, b, c, d, and e. Now groups a, b, and c all have similar views and represent sixty percent of the population, while groups d and e have similar views and are the remaining forty percent. With these numbers you would think that the “Lefts” definitely have an advantage over the “Rights.” However, Candidate’s A and C recently had a huge argument during a public debate and, now their respective groups hate the other’s candidate. Political analysts are now saying that Candidate B will most likely win the election. Seeing this, groups d and e decide to rank Candidate B the lowest on their ballots. But during the election, something interesting happens (see fig. 1):
Fig. 1. Borda Count example.
Candidate’s D and E, who represent the minority of the population, are now battling for the win while Candidate’s A, B, and C, who represent the majority, are out of the race. Once again, the winning candidates do not represent the majority of the people, and therefore this voting method is flawed.
Overall, we have seen that each method, when viewed from the outside, seems to be a rather effective system. However, when viewed from within, the opposite becomes clear. All of the systems, when dealing with three or more options, have serious flaws. The elected option does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the majority. So after examining the Plurality, Approval, and Borda Count voting methods, we see that voting is not as democratic as we initially believed.
Works Cited
‘Borda Count.” 11 October 2005. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 23 October 2005.
Burger, Edward B. and Michael Starbird. The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. Emeryville, CA: Key, 2005.
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