Condorcet voting
Each voter writes all candidates' names in order of preference. Condorcet voting elects the candidate who would beat every other candidate in a head-to-head match-up. This person is known as the Condorcet winner. There are many different Condorcet voting methods. They all elect the Condorcet winner when one exists. They differ on how they choose a winner when no Condorcet winner exists. The algorithms used to determine the winner are too complicated to explain here. When using a Condorcet method for an election, you will probably want to use a website to do the calculation for you.
Benefits
- Consensus-based—tends to elect a compromise candidate as opposed to a polarizing candidate.
- Less strongly consensus-based than Borda count—if you like the idea of a consensus-based method but Borda count is too much for you, Condorcet offers a milder option.
Disadvantages
- Presents a moderate opportunity for strategic voting.
- Produces bad outcomes in the face of high amounts of strategic voting.
Recommended when
- You want a consensus voting method and your members can largely be trusted not to vote strategically.
- You don't mind needing a computer to calculate the winner.
Not recommended when
- You want a majoritarian voting method.
- Your members are likely to vote strategically.
- You want a voting method that is simple enough to calculate the winner by hand.