The main flaw in RCV is that it eliminates candidates based on first preference alone, which is only a small part of the picture. The example I give at MEVoting.com is an election with three candidates - a liberal, a centrist and a conservative - who are each the first choice of about one third of the voters, however the centrist has sli…
The main flaw in RCV is that it eliminates candidates based on first preference alone, which is only a small part of the picture. The example I give at MEVoting.com is an election with three candidates - a liberal, a centrist and a conservative - who are each the first choice of about one third of the voters, however the centrist has slightly less than the other two and is thus eliminated first, even though he or she would defeat both other candidates in separate two-way races by margins approaching two to one. So-called "Approval Voting" works better, and a combination of the two systems is the best possible method, imo.
The main flaw in RCV is that it eliminates candidates based on first preference alone, which is only a small part of the picture. The example I give at MEVoting.com is an election with three candidates - a liberal, a centrist and a conservative - who are each the first choice of about one third of the voters, however the centrist has slightly less than the other two and is thus eliminated first, even though he or she would defeat both other candidates in separate two-way races by margins approaching two to one. So-called "Approval Voting" works better, and a combination of the two systems is the best possible method, imo.