How our voting system (and IRV) betrays your favourite candidate
Channel: The Center for Election Science
Date: 2013-12-02

Most people know that you can't always vote for your favorite candidate in plurality voting.  Your favorite might be a spoiler and your vote might cause your least favorite candidate to win.  No matter how much you like him, you may have to betray your favorite candidate and vote for a candidate that actually has a chance of winning.

Does Instant Runoff Voting (aka Ranked Choice Voting) fix this problem?  No!

This video clearly shows why sometimes, even in instant runoff voting, supporting your favorite candidate can cause your least favorite to win.  You may need to betray your favorite and put for your first choice the candidate that has a better chance of beating your least favorite.

Nader image by Don LaVange (cropped) (CC-BY 2.0): http://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden/474602694/