Simulating alternate voting systems

Primer · 4.5M views · 2020-11-02 · 14:03

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Overview

Primer uses simulations to compare voting systems such as first-past-the-post, approval, ranked choice and others. It shows how each system behaves and can be manipulated, with links to further voting theory resources.

On Hacker News

HN commenters link it to explain why plurality voting produces two-party systems and how ranked-choice voting suffers spoiler effects.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2026

Topics

Probability & game theory US politics & elections

What people said

awb · 2022-10 · Recommendation
> and then we promised to not game the system That's the key point. Unfortunately, all known voting systems can be gamed. Here's an interesting video that explains how they can be manipulated: [VIDEO]
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esarbe · 2020-12 · Recommendation
Let's see. Canada currently has 338 MPs and over 80% (!) of those (278) belong to one of two majority parties. So yes, in theory Canada has a multi party system. In practice this multi party system is severely damaged by the effects of the FPTP voting system. There are mathematical reasons for FPTP to result in two party systems. [0] explains it pretty well. There don't have to be deeper underlying stuctural reasons for the dichotomy. So to combat two party systems, replacing FPTP with an alternative voting system seems a pretty reasonable step. [0] [VIDEO]
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amavect · 2026-08 · Reference
A reminder to support approval voting, star voting, and proportional voting so we can end the 2 party system. [VIDEO] [LINK]
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Sources

Video by Primer, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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