Tom Ruen here I edited the IRV page today added a second for special cases including rules to break ties Im not sure if it is appropriate for the level of article but it definitely was a vital point missing from the existing article That is tiebreaking consideration is vital but I also included optional rules for quickly eliminating many weak candidates on the first round Some may object to this approach although in reality it is very difficult for different elimination rules to affect the winner  You can always imagine examples where a weak first round candidate wins but usually it takes core support AND Compromise appeal to win and few candidates survive merely on compromise appeal  Examples include  Round  A BD CD D ED Round  A BD D CD Round  A D BD Round  D A   Here a th place  supported candidate wins IRV on a cascade of transfer votes always avoiding last place  Imagined elections like this are actually the biggest fear from people happy with plurality that some voters can offer  votes to affect the winner while others only get  vote  The reality is that IRV retains the power of the twoparty system to thrive because when there are  strong parties voters cant safely vote for a favorite if that favorite isnt also likely to be ranked highly on votes supporting the candidate they hope to eliminate  First round rules that immediately eliminate a bunch of weak candidates at once help reduce fears that IRV helps weak parties