Choose 1 Voting Pros and Cons

aka Plurality Voting & First Past the Post (FPTP)

Single Winner Elections

Please consider the nature of single winner elections. They represent only the supporters of the winning candidate.

Many voting methods are fairer and more reliable than Choose One voting, but they cannot solve the larger problem. Proportional representation is the only way to represent nearly every voter.

Choose 1 Plurality Voting Pros

Choose 1 voting has three important advantages.

Choose 1 is Simple

Vote for one candidate, then add up the votes. The candidate with the most votes wins. Straightforward.

We Have Used it for Centuries

Choose 1 voting is second nature to Americans. It is traditional and easy to use.

Compliance with State Constitutions

Choose 1 plurality voting complies with state constitutions that require a winning candidate to receive the “the highest”, “the greatest” or “the largest” number of votes, or “a plurality of the votes”. Other voting methods will face legal challenges in most states. Ranked Choice and Score voting may be more likely to comply with state constitutions than other methods.

Choose 1 Plurality Voting Cons

Our Voice is Limited

With Choose 1 voting, you can only vote “yes” for one candidate. Rated and ranked voting systems allow voters to express opinions on all candidates. You can state your preference for candidate A over candidate B, and by how much you prefer A to B.

Too Many Wasted Votes

Choose 1 voting often elects candidates with less than 50% support. Over 50% of the voters are not represented. Their votes did not contribute to the election of a candidate, their votes were wasted. “Wasted vote” is a technical term. Proportional representation elections have few wasted votes.

Divisive Two-Party Rule

From the Hiveism Substack[1]

Since every voter can vote for only one candidate, votes are a limited resource that candidates compete over. This turns campaigning into a zero-sum game. Candidates with similar political values must compete against each other. They split the votes, which benefits their mutual opponent.

According to Duverger’s Law[2] single winner elections with Choose One voting favor a two-party system. Voters are reluctant to waste votes on third-party candidates. Fewer of them run, when they do they are often ignored. With two-party rule locked in, the malice between our major parties breeds a dysfunctional duopoly of power.

Problems with Three or More Candidates

In elections with three or more candidates, Choose 1 voting often fails to elect the candidate with the greatest support. Below, we explain how it fails.

The Spoiler Effect and Favorite Betrayal

A third-party candidate can draw votes away from a major party candidate, spoiling the chances of the major party candidate.

Consider this common occurrence:

Your favorite candidate has little chance of winning, but your second choice has a good chance of defeating the third candidate, who is possessed by Satan.

Choose 1 voting tempts you to betray your favorite candidate. If you do not betray your favorite, you spoil the chances of your second choice, which helps the candidate possessed by Satan.

Third Party Abuse

Because voters seldom vote for their favorite third-party candidate, third party support is always under reported. It is more difficult for third parties to recruit members, raise campaign funds, motivate volunteers, generate publicity, and win elections.

By sabotaging third parties and independent candidates, we silence valuable voices and ideas.

Major Party Abuse

The spoiler effect beat Al Gore in the 2000 election. Will the spoiler threat posed by Robert Kennedy jr. beat Donald Trump or Joe Biden in 2024?

The Center Squeeze Effect

Imagine this 3-way election:

A popular moderate has the strongest support, with conservative and liberal candidates close behind.

Confident that they can hold their bases, both the conservative and the liberal tailor their campaigns towards moderate voters, squeezing the moderate candidate out of the race.

Choose 1 voting is very susceptible to the Center Squeeze Effect. Choose One is a simple ranked voting system. You rank one candidate over all others. Ranked voting systems can split support for similar candidates. Choose One voting more so than other ranked systems.

Rated voting systems like Score voting (Score each candidate 0-5. Highest score wins.) do not split support. Rated methods accurately report support for similar candidates.

Condorcet Winners

The Condorcet Criterium holds that voting systems should elect a candidate who beats all others one-on-one (if there is such a candidate). A good voting method need not elect the “beats all” winner in every election. In a close race the Condorcet winner might not have the strongest support.

Consider this three-candidate race:

A popular moderate has 30% support, Democrat and Republican candidates both poll close to 35%.

Most Democrats prefer the moderate over the Republican, and Republicans prefer the moderate over the Democrat.

With broad support, the moderate defeats both the Democrat and the Republican in one-on-one matchups. The moderate is the Condorcet winner. However, the moderate loses the Choose One vote. Choose One voting too often fails to elect Condorcet winners.

Reputation

For the reasons above, voting system experts have a very low regard for Choose 1 voting. Jean-Francois Laslier conducted a pole of specialists in voting procedures. They gave Choose 1 a big fat zero compared to other voting systems.[3]

Jameson Quinn, creator of the VSE election simulations, on Choose 1 voting: “It often gets “spoiled” results, where a weaker candidate wins due to vote-splitting; it encourages strategy; and it leads to uncompetitive politics, dominated by big parties (and their big donors) who get their votes as much through fear as through hope”.[4]

Us Against Them

Single member districts and Choose 1 voting lock in two-party rule. It is always us against them. Our elections have devolved into heavily armed food fights. We forbid cooperation and compromise. Officeholders cannot build coalitions for a lack of partners.

Multi-Party Election Reform sounds like something we might do in the future, but we need reform now.

Please read Our Purpose and Plan to learn how voters can take charge.

[1] Four Levels of Voting Methods Hiveism Substack

[2] Duverger’s Law holds that single winner elections with plurality voting methods tend to favor two-party systems.

[3] Jean-Francois Laslier, https://hal.science/hal-00609810/document

[4] Voter Satisfaction Efficiency Simulator https://electionscience.github.io/vse-sim/VSEbasic/