The Primary difference between "Ranked Choice" voting and the standard "One voter One vote" systems, is that Ranked Choice allows you to vote on more than one candidate at a time in terms of 1st Choice, 2nd Choice, 3rd Choice, etc.

Here is a short list of the many different versions;
- Plurality (First Past the Post)
- Run-Off
- Instant Run-Off
- Condorcet
- Borda Count
- Single Transferable Voting (STV)
- Single Transferable Voting (STV) w/ Borda elimination
- Meek Style STV
- Meek Style STV w/ Borda elimination
- Pair Wise
- Approval Voting
- and many more

And all of these have different equations of how to count the votes & select a winner. Many of these were built on top of a previous one, so they are similar. And a few add different features such as, electing the top two candidates, and more.

While all of them worked, and provided a winning count, it seemed that the ones that performed the count the easiest and least expensive way in terms of tabulation effort & time, were also the least accurate, selecting the most well known candidate as opposed to the most preferred candidate.

"Looks too Confusing & Complicated" ~ Is the most common argument against RCV.

We agree, trying to learn each one of these systems, and then selecting the best one to use is a daunting task...

So, We set out to test & identify the most accurate version and clearly discribe how it works, and why it be should be used.

As this task became more complicated with added ranking and weighting of the choice levels, etc. we decided to build a tool to test the different versions for simplity and accuracy.
And in the effort of fine-tuning this tool, it ultimately turned into a very nice version that provided the objectives of all the versions, in a single process.

Note: Most of the RCV versions, are based on elimination rounds,
by 1st eliminating the weakest candidate, and moving each voter's remaining Choices up in "Ranking", ie. If your 1st Choice is eliminated, your 2nd Choice becomes your new 1st Choice, your 3rd Choice, becomes your 2nd, your 4th becomes your 3rd, etc.

To demostrate this process, we built a visual demo that steps through the counting and vote tabulation routine, making it easy to see how it works. The demo's shifting Process is an extremely accurate and fast way to rank and count RCV ballots.

This process is used & introduced on The Visual Tabulation page here, Rcv Tools ~ Visual Tabulation Demo

RCV ~ also eliminates the "Spoiler Effect" and adds complexity to any successful Gerrymandering efforts (as described later).

RCV ~ introduces new faces & new candidates w/o Party Alignment & Commitment.
~ while also allowing for Party alignment, if the candiate wants to support any party.

RCV ~ Gives us more Options & Choices, more information on issues & referance for future support.
~ and helps educate the public on the current and importent issues, etc. And Ultimately removes the stranglehold that a two-Party system has on the Ballot Box, by allowing anyone to get on a ballot, showing enough endorsements.

Some describe RCV as a Consensus-Based voting system rather than a majoritarian one.

This Project is based on two primary premises.

(A) The first is acknowledging that anything that uses the Internet to store voter data or calculating equations in any way, can & likely will get hacked (or compromised) at some point, especially when it comes to voting. And the best way to remove that problem is by not engaging the internet for transmitting voting data or processing the data in any way.

(B) The Second, is acknowledging that there can always be an inside breach or tampering of the ballots. We think we may be able to solve that problem. This is a WORK IN PROGRESS at this stage, but we are working on it,

We believe we can build a secure system that can't be broken or tampered with. without telling on itself

Let's say the polling location creates an encrypted mirror of the actual ballot database every 15 min, and we allow the staff and anyone who has voted to take & keep a copy.

This may seem difficult, but it's really not, let's say you have 10 candidates & 5 Ranked choices per candidate, and 50,000 voters at that location, that's only 50 x 50,000, or a 2.5 MB picture!, and that is a small file, in today's world.

And it's printable, can be scanned and used to mirror the actual votes up to that time.

And in this way, even if someone at the voting location tampers with the database, or the results are challenged after the election, and call for a time con-consuming recount.

We've got potentially 50,000 mirrors available to challege a breach or a recount call and build a new matching database to be compared to the official one on location, from the mirrors in minutes, and no-one can claim that ALL the 50,000 voters and staffers are lying!

Now, here's another important point,

Typically a printed copy of a voter's ballot is not provided to voters for safety reasons. because, let's say someone has threatened or paid a voter to vote a certain way. If a copy of their ballot is not provided, then there is no way to prove that they voted like they were directed to, so that possible threat goes away.

So we can't provide the voter with a copy of their vote, but we can allow the voter to check the Integrity & Accuracy of their mirror, at anytime.

anyway, we are looking at all aspects of these security problems and are trying to get a working demo on this finalized, when & if we do, we will present it here to be tested, challenged, criticized & all.

And reguardless of this hopeful 2nd Premise, Our Finished Demo works perfectly as it is & It very well demonstates how All RCV Elections can & should be counted.

Again, for security reasons, All of the actual devices used at the RCV voting locations such as tablets, printers & scaners etc. should be stand alone or dedicated devices with no access to the Internet in any way, via, wifi, bluetooth, syncing, hotspots, etc. We will also host a page here listing the different dedicated devices avaiable, including critiques & reviews etc.

~ Tools & Services

Visual Tabulation Demo - tool to not only tabulate the votes, but also visually show how it works.
Paper Ballot Design Tool -
Available Dedicated devices -
Chat - Network / dataLink Services ~

Security Tools

Mirrors, etc

Campaign Tools

Campaign Assist ~ canvassing forms etc.

We will provide the actual javascript file that can be copied from the screen .. so recieving a corrupted download is not possible ... as well as instructions to get it working ... etc. coming soon ...

Here are a few of the sites we used in our research on voting methods,

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-how-math-could-design-the-perfect-electoral-system/

https://www.eballot.com/

https://fairvote.org/archives/types_of_voting_systems/

https://fairvote.org/archives/multi_winner_rcv_example/

https://votingmethods.net/calc/

https://perthirtysix.com/tool/voting-systems-simulator

https://openstax.org/books/contemporary-mathematics/pages/11-1-voting-methods#exam-00004

https://www.ezvoteonline.com/M/Ranked-Choice-Voting/

https://ballotpedia.org/Ranked-choice_voting_(RCV)

https://www.rcvresources.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method