Glossary

A ballot which counts toward an active candidate in the current round of an RCV tabulation. Compare to Inactive Ballot.

A candidate who has not been eliminated during a round-by-round RCV tabulation. In a tabulation lasting multiple rounds, the number of active candidates will decrease with each round. Also known as a Continuing Candidate. Compare to Inactive Candidate.

The idea that constituents have voted for the officials who represent them. Compare to Virtual Representation.

A voting method in which voters can vote for, or approve of, as many candidates as they wish. Each candidate approved receives one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. The winner need not garner a majority of the votes. Compare and contrast single-winner election methods here.

An economic theorem showing that there is no method that can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide ranking while also meeting a specified set of conditions. The conditions are Non-Dictatorship, Pareto Efficiency, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, Social Ordering, and Unrestricted Domain.

A type of electoral jurisdiction where representatives are elected from the whole political region, such as a whole city, county, state, or nation. Compare to elections by District.

An electronically produced record of all votes cast by a single voter. Related concept: Cast Vote Record (CVR).

The average difference in social utility between the chosen candidate and the best candidate. Used as a criterion for evaluating voter satisfaction.

A blanket primary is a primary election which includes all candidates for an office, regardless of political party. Each voter votes for one candidate. The candidate with the most votes from each political party advances to the general election. Also known as a Jungle Primary.

A Winner-Take-All voting method used in Multi-Winner Districts in which voters have as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. Voting can be either candidate-centered or party-centered. Counting is identical to a plurality system, with the candidates with the highest vote totals winning the seats. Also known as Bloc Voting, Multi-Winner Plurality, and sometimes referred to as At-Large Voting, typically in Voting Rights Act lawsuits, which often target this method for its dilution of minority voting power. Learn more on our Voting Rights and Proportional Representation page.

A ranked voting method for Single-Winner races. Voters rank candidates and the rankings are converted into points. Candidates receive the most points for being ranked first, fewer points for being ranked second, and so on. The candidate with the most points wins.

A ranked voting method for Multi-Winner races. Bottoms-Up RCV eliminates lowest-performing candidates one at a time, with ballots being transferred to the next choice marked on those ballots, until the number of remaining candidates is equal to the number of seats to be filled. Bottoms-up RCV differs from proportional RCV because it does not transfer surplus votes away from candidates who have already won. It is considered a “semi proportional” method because it is not a winner-take-all system, but it also may not lead to fully proportional outcomes. To learn more, see our chart comparing multi-winner RCV methods. Bottoms-up RCV was used by five states for their Democratic presidential primaries in 2020 and will be used in Washington, DC for multi-winner city council seats beginning in 2026.

A ranked voting method for Single-Winner races. If no candidate earns a majority of first choices, all second choices are added to all first choices. Unlike Ranked Choice Voting — in which every voter has one choice in each round, with their votes only transferring in the case of their preferred candidate’s elimination — Bucklin voting allows a ballot to count simultaneously for its first, second, etc. choices until a candidate achieves a majority. Bucklin voting was used in some states in the early 20th century, but is currently not used anywhere in the world.

A ballot in which the voter has selected only one candidate, despite the option to indicate a preference for more than one candidate.

The candidate favored by a like-minded group of racial minority voters in a district. The Voting Rights Act prohibits voting methods that prevent certain minority groups from electing candidates of their choice.

A record of the contest selections produced by a single voter. The term Cast Vote Record or CVR is sometimes also used to refer to a compilation of all individual voters’ selections. Related concept: Ballot Image Data.

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. Some states use in-person caucuses to select delegates for presidential elections, rather than party primaries. The word caucus can also sometimes refer to a group of like-minded people, such as the Congressional Black Caucus.

A form of List Proportional Representation in which electors vote for a political party and seats are awarded to individuals based exclusively on the list provided by the political party.

A primary election only available to voters registered with a particular political party. In jurisdictions with closed primaries, independent or unaffiliated voters are excluded from participating in the party nomination contests. Compare to Open Primary and Semi-Closed Primary.

A group of residents who have common political interests that do not necessarily coincide with the boundaries of a political subdivision.

A concept in redistricting, referring to minimizing the distance between all parts of a district. Examples of compact shapes include a circle, square or hexagon. Compactness can be measured in different ways, including area dispersion or perimeter.

The party list seats in a Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system awarded to parties based on their proportion of the national vote. These seats are designed to correct the often disproportionate results of plurality elections.

A concept in redistricting, referring to the partisan balance in a district. A highly competitive district would have a relatively even partisan balance, making competition between the two major parties more intense. When used as a criterion in districting, it typically seeks to avoid the creation of districts which are considered "safe" for a particular party.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The Condorcet criterion is satisfied if, when there exists a candidate who would defeat every other candidate in a head-to-head election, that candidate always wins. Such a candidate is known as a Concordet Winner.

An election method using ranked ballots which is designed to always elect the Condorcet Winner if such a candidate exists. Condorcet voting methods include many individual methods which differ only in how they choose a winner when no Condorcet Winner exists. Condorcet methods are not used in any government elections. Compare and contrast single-winner election methods here.

The candidate who would defeat every other candidate in a head-to-head or pairwise election. Election methods which always elect the Condorcet Winner if one exits are known as Condorcet Voting methods.

A concept in redistricting, measuring whether a district is within one continuous boundary and whose parts all touch one another. Contiguity is the most common requirement for districting and is the norm everywhere, but some districts stretch the limits of this requirement by connecting different landmasses through water or having two parts of a district intersect at a single point which takes up no area.

A ranked voting method for Single-Winner races. Contingent voting is similar to Ranked Choice Voting but the count is limited to two rounds. If there is no majority winner in the first round, the top two vote-getters advance to a final round, rather than a series of one-by-one elimination rounds. Also known as Supplementary Voting.

A ranked voting method for Single-Winner races. Coombs’ Method differs from Ranked Choice Voting because candidate elimination is determined differently. Each round until a majority winner is identified, the candidate with the most last-place rankings is eliminated. Compare to Ranked Choice Voting which eliminates the candidate with the fewest first-choice rankings.

A concept in redistricting, cracking is the practice of spreading voters of a particular type among multiple districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district.

A Semi-Proportional voting method used in Multi-Winner elections. Voters have a number of votes equal to the number of seats to be filled and may allocate their votes among the candidates in any way they see fit, including giving multiple votes to a single candidate or spreading their votes among different candidates. Cumulative Voting is used in some U.S. jurisdictions, imposed as a result of Voting Rights Act (VRA) lawsuits.

A method used to award legislative seats in a List Proportional Representation system. The available seats are awarded one at a time to the party with the largest average number of votes as determined by dividing the number of votes for that party by the number of seats the party has been awarded plus one.

Average votes =Votes for partyseats + 1

Each time a party wins a seat, the divisor for that party increases by one, which thus reduces its chances of winning the next seat. The first seat is awarded to the party with the largest absolute number of votes. Also known as the Jefferson Method.

The idea that a body of elected representatives should reflect the descriptive identities, such as race, ethnicity, age, gender, and so on, of the populations they represent. Compare with Substantive Representation.

A voting device in which votes are cast and stored entirely electronically.

The geographical regions into which a city, state, or country is divided for election purposes. Single-Winner Districts elect one member of the legislature whereas Multi-Winner Districts elect two or more.

The number of candidates to be elected in each District. Single-Winner Districts elect one member of the legislature whereas Multi-Winner Districts elect two or more.

The threshold of votes required to win one seat under certain forms of Proportional Representation, including most implementations of proportional RCV (also known as single transferable vote). The formula for the threshold is the sum of one and the quotient of the total number of votes cast and the sum of one and the number of seats to be elected.

Threshold =total votesseats + 1 + 1

For one to be elected, the threshold is 50% + 1; for two it is 33.3% + 1; for three it is 25% + 1; and so on.

Duplicate Ranking: An instance in which a voter assigns multiple rankings to a single candidate in a ranked voting method. For example, a ballot which marks the same candidate as both first and second choice.

An instance in which a voter assigns multiple rankings to a single candidate in a ranked voting method. For example, a ballot on which the same candidate is ranked as both first and second choice contains a duplicate ranking.

A review conducted after an election for the purpose of determining whether the votes were counted accurately (a results audit) or whether proper procedures were followed (a process audit), or both. One type of audit is a risk-limiting audit (RLA) in which a portion of ballots are manually checked against official election results to determine whether ballots were tallied correctly. Another type of audit is a Bayesian audit which uses Bayesian principles to estimate the probability that the election outcome is correct.

A member of the electoral college. Each presidential candidate has a slate of electors. When voters vote in the presidential election, they are choosing which set of electors will vote for president and vice president in their state. If selected, the electors cast a vote for president and a vote for vice president in their state in December.

A voting method criterion refers to whether a voting method can behave in a certain way. Evaluative criteria are used as one way to compare various voting methods.

The principle that a legislature should reflect all of the voters who elect them. Like-minded voters should be able to elect representatives in proportion to their number. Fair Representation voting methods include Proportional Representation methods and Semi-Proportional Representation methods. Compare with Winner-Take-All.

An elector who does not vote for their pledged candidate.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The favorite betrayal criterion is satisfied if there is no situation in which a voter could obtain a more preferred outcome by not voting for their sincere favorite as their top choice.

A form of List Proportional Representation similar to Open List PR, but instead of having just one vote for one candidate in a list, a voter has as many votes as there are seats to be filled to distribute among candidates as they see fit, including candidates from different lists. In this way, it is similar to Cumulative Voting. Also known as Panachage.

A voting method in which more than one political party can nominate a common candidate. In “aggregated” fusion, each candidate appears on the ballot with all nominating parties listed. In “disaggregated” fusion, each political party’s list of nominees appears on its own line, and candidates nominated by multiple parties will appear on multiple party lines.

The manipulation of district boundary lines in order to advantage or disadvantage a candidate or political group. Gerrymandering can be used to create a district that is favorable to an incumbent, advantage a party or political group to receive more seats than its proportion of the vote, or to conversely disenfranchise a group or party by weakening or dividing that subset of the electorate.

A method of Surplus Vote Transfer under Proportional Ranked Choice Voting in which ballots are transferred fractionally. When a candidate wins a seat, votes for that candidate are re-weighted, multiplying their current weight by the quotient of their surplus vote divided by their total vote. The voting method using Gregory reallocation is known as the Inclusive Weighted Gregory Method. The Gregory method is the most common surplus transfer method in Proportional RCV elections. Compare to Meeks’ Method.

The threshold of votes required to win one seat under certain forms of Proportional Representation. The quota is ascertained by dividing the total vote by the number of seats.

Threshold =total votesseats

The Hare quota tends to exaggerate the representation of smaller blocs of voters, even sometimes resulting in a minority voting bloc winning a majority of seats, and for that reason it has largely been displaced by other thresholds, primarily the Droop Quota.

A ballot which does not count toward an Active Candidate in the current round of tabulation in an RCV election. Ballots become inactive if all validly ranked candidates have become inactive during the tabulation. This can happen due to a voter’s choice not to rank all candidates, a limit on the number of rankings imposed by a jurisdiction, or an error which disqualifies the ballot. Also known as an “exhausted ballot”. Compare to Active Ballot.

A candidate who has been eliminated during the round-by-round tabulation in an RCV election. Compare to Active Candidate.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The independence of clones criterion is satisfied if an otherwise winning candidate is not caused to lose by introducing an identical candidate.

One of the conditions included in Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. The independence of irrelevant alternatives criterion is satisfied if adding an additional non-winning candidate to a contest can never change the winner.

Cast ballots that are unable to be included in the vote total due to accidental or deliberate errors on the ballot.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The later-no-harm criterion is satisfied if expressing support for a second or later choice candidate cannot cause a more favored candidate to lose.

A Semi-Proportional voting method used in Multi-Winner elections. Voters have fewer votes than the number of seats to be filled, but sometimes more than one vote. Counting is identical to a plurality election, with the candidates with the highest vote totals winning the seats. When voters have only one vote, it is also known as the Single Vote method or the Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV).

A form of Proportional Representation used in Multi-Winner elections. Each party submits lists of candidates to be elected and voters vote for the party. Seats are allocated to each party in proportion to the share received in the jurisdiction or district. Party lists of candidates can be Open, Closed, or Free. List proportional representation is also known as Party List Proportional, List Systems, or List PR.

The common term for the Louisiana general election for local, state, and congressional offices. It is similar to a Top-Two Primary, with all candidates competing regardless of political party, but is a general election rather than a primary election. The candidate who receives a majority is elected. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff election. This system is also used for U.S. Senate special elections in Mississippi and Texas, and special elections for partisan offices in Georgia. Also known as a Cajun primary or jungle primary.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The majority criterion is satisfied if, when there exists a candidate who is the preferred by more than half of voters, that candidate always wins. A stricter version of the majority criterion is the mutual majority criterion.

A term for a candidate who earns more than 50% of votes. Voting methods which require majority support mean that a candidate must earn the votes of greater than 50% of voters in order to win. Compare with Plurality Winner.

A method of Surplus Vote Transfer under Proportional Ranked Choice Voting in which ballots are transferred fractionally. The Meeks method is similar to the Gregory Method except that it uses iterative approximation to re-calculate weightings after each round. This accounts for ballots which are partially transferred to a candidate who has already won a seat in a previous round.

A hybrid electoral method in which some legislative seats are elected from Single-Winner Districts using Winner-Take-All rules and additional “compensatory” seats are awarded to underrepresented parties in order to achieve Proportional Representation overall. MMP combines geographic representation with proportional representation of ideological interests. The “Districts Plus” model in FairVote’s reform library is a form of MMP.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The monotonicity criterion is satisfied if (1) giving greater support for a candidate can never hurt that candidate, and (2) giving less support for a candidate can never benefit that candidate.

A district from which more than one member is elected. Also known as a multi-member district or a multi-seat district. Compare to Single-Winner District.

One of the criteria used to evaluate voting methods. The mutual majority criterion is a stricter version of the majority criterion. It is satisfied if, when there exists a subset of candidates, such as all candidates from one political party, such that a majority of voters prefer every member of that group to all other candidates, the voting method must always elect a member of that group.

The total of all votes cast for president across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and sometimes also including other American territories. The national popular vote outcome does not determine who is elected president, and the winner of the national popular vote has not been elected president on five separate occasions.

An agreement which stipulates that all participating states will award their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the National Popular Vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is set to go into effect only after states controlling a majority of electoral votes have enacted it.

One of the conditions included in Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. The voting method must consider the wishes of multiple voters rather than a single voter.

A method of conducting Multi-Winner elections by dividing them into separate Single-Winner elections, all elected At-Large. Some numbered posts require that the candidate be a resident of a particular geographical area, but many allow any candidate to run for any seat, such as “Seat A”, “Seat B”, and so on. Numbered posts can be combined with ranked choice voting, like in Benton County, OR and Minnetonka, MN, and St. Louis Park, MN.

A constitutional principle based on Article I, Section 2 and the 14th Amendment which holds that each voter should have the same effective voting power as each other voter. If a jurisdiction uses districts, those districts must have an approximately equal number of persons per representative elected in each district.

A form of List Proportional Representation in which electors can express a preference for the order of candidates within a party list, as well as voting for the party. The “Open Ticket” model in FairVote’s reform library is a form of open list PR.

A primary election in which a separate election is held for each political party, but voters may participate in the primary of their choice, regardless of their party registration.

An electronic voting system which reads marked paper ballots and tabulates the results.

A ballot that indicates a preference for more than the maximum number of selections allowed. Under Ranked Choice Voting, this means the voter has ranked more than one candidate at the same ranking order. In Single-Choice Plurality, it means the voter has voted for more than one candidate.

A concept in redistricting, packing is the practice of concentrating voters of one type into a single electoral district in order to reduce their influence in other districts.

A hybrid electoral method in which some legislative seats are elected from Single-Winner Districts using Winner-Take-All rules and the remainder from List Proportional Representation methods. Unlike Mixed-Member Proportional, proportionality is confined to the party lists seats, rather than applying to the legislative chamber overall.

One of the conditions included in Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. If every individual prefers a certain option to another, then so must the resulting societal preference order.

A term for the candidate who got more votes than any other competing candidates. In elections with more than two candidates, a plurality winner may have less than 50% of the votes. In the Single-Choice Plurality voting method, such a candidate is the winner. Compare with Majority Winner.

A Multi-Winner ranked choice voting method whose goal is Proportional Representation. Candidates who meet the threshold of votes to be elected see their surplus votes transferred to other candidates. For information on how votes are reallocated, see Random Reallocation, Gregory Method for Reallocation, and Meeks Method for Reallocation. Proportional RCV is also known as single transferable vote, STV, and the Hare system.

A group of voting methods whose goal is to ensure that parties and political groups earn legislative seats in proportion to their share of the vote. For example, a party receiving 30% of the vote should receive approximately 30% of the seats.

Circumstances where the voting preferences of a particular racial or ethnic group consistently vary from the preferences of other groups. If racially polarized voting can be demonstrated in a jurisdiction, and if the relevant minority group is sufficiently large and geographically cohesive enough to elect a candidate of choice in a Single-Winner District, it may be illegal for the jurisdiction to dilute that group’s ability to elect a Candidate of Choice by using a Winner-Take-All At-Large election method or an unfair districting plan.

A method of Surplus Vote Transfer in which ballots to be transferred are chosen randomly. Compare to fractional methods of transfer such as the Gregory Method and the Meeks Method.

Ranked choice voting is a way to ensure elections are fair for all voters. It allows voters the option to rank candidates in order of preference: one, two, three, and so forth.

If your vote cannot help your top choice win, your vote counts for your next choice.

In races where voters select one winner, if a candidate receives more than half of the first choices, that candidate wins, just like in any other election. However, if there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the race is decided by an “instant runoff.” The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as ‘number 1’ will have their votes count for their next choice. This process continues until there’s a majority winner or a candidate won with more than half of the vote.

Single-winner RCV is also known as instant runoff voting, the alternative vote, and preferential majority voting.

Multi-winner RCV is also known as single transferable vote (STV), proportional representation, the Hare system, and choice voting. Modified systems of multi-winner RCV include bottoms-up RCV, “vote for w” RCV, and sequential ranked choice voting.

The number assigned by a voter to a candidate to express the voter’s choice for that candidate. The number “1” is the highest ranking order, followed by “2” and then “3” and so on.

Seats in which some criterion such as religion, ethnicity, language, gender etc. is a requirement for election. Gender quotas are a type of reserved seat used around the world to ensure legislative representation for women. Also known as set-aside seats.

Votes that cannot be counted for a specific contest. There are multiple types of residual votes, including Overvotes and Undervotes.

An instance of the sequence of voting tabulation in a ranked choice voting (RCV) election.

A state in which voters are known to favor one political party by such a margin that the outcome can be reliably predicted in advance of each statewide election. Compare to Swing State.

A voting method for Single-Winner Districts in which voters award each candidate a “score”, typically a number between 0 and 5. Voters’ scores are then either summed or averaged together for each candidate. The candidate with the highest total score wins. Also known as range voting.

A part of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits states and other jurisdictions from maintaining voting laws, standards or practices that abridge the right to vote on the basis of race or language group. When a law has the effect of denying the right to vote or the opportunity to elect candidates to a group on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or language minority status, then a lawsuit may be brought under Section 2 to change that law. Voting methods which have been adopted in response to VRA lawsuits include Proportional Ranked Choice Voting, Cumulative Voting, and Limited Voting.

A primary election in which a separate election is held for each political party. Each primary is open to voters registered with that party and to unaffiliated voters, who may choose which primary to participate in.

Electoral systems that are not Winner-Take-All, but do not guarantee Proportional Representation. Semi-proportional systems generally produce electoral results that are between the proportionality of full representation systems and the disproportionality of winner-take-all systems. These methods include Cumulative Voting and Limited Voting.

A Winner-Take-All RCV method for Multi-Winner elections. Votes are counted as a sequential series of single-winner RCV contests. After one seat has been awarded, the elected candidate is removed from consideration, all ballots are returned to full value, and a new single-winner ranked choice voting count occurs. This process repeats until all seats have been filled. Unlike Proportional RCV, this form of ranked choice voting is not a method for obtaining Proportional Representation. Instead, it is a “majoritarian” method, meaning a single cohesive majority has the power to elect every seat. Also known as Majoritarian Ranked Choice Voting and Block Preferential Voting.

Votes cast by voters for their most preferred candidate. Compare with Strategic Voting.

A voting method used in Single-Winner elections in which the candidate with the most votes wins, without necessarily receiving a majority of votes. It is the most common system used in the United States.

Certain jurisdictions couple the use of single-choice plurality with runoff elections if no winner earns a majority of votes in the initial election, known as a Two Round System. Also known as plurality voting and first-past-the-post (FPTP).

A Multi-Winner voting method in which each voter may vote for one candidate and the candidate with the highest number of votes is the winner. It is the multi-winner form of Single-Choice Plurality Voting and it is a type of Limited Voting. It is considered a semi-proportional voting method and has been used as a remedy to vote dilution under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

A district that elects one winner. Also known as a single-member district or a single-seat district. Compare to Multi-Winner District.

A ranked ballot on which a voter did not use every available ranking. Skipped rankings can sometimes cause a ballot to become inactive if every ranked candidate is eliminated from the tabulation. A ballot with skipped rankings is different from an undervote because an undervote means the voter did not rank any candidates in that contest.

One of the conditions included in Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. Each individual should be able to order the choices in any way and indicate ties.

A ballot that has been marked or altered in a way that prevents it from being counted.

A phenomenon in Single-Choice Plurality elections in which a head-to-head race between two viable candidates would lead to one candidate winning, but in which the presence of a third, non-viable candidate divides that winner’s support, causing the other viable candidate to win with a plurality vote instead. A general term for the phenomenon when two similar candidates divide their base of support is Vote Splitting.

A form of Score Voting which relies on two rounds of tallies to determine a winner. Instead of electing the candidate with the highest score, STAR voting first identifies the candidates with the two highest scores. It then assigns each of those candidates one vote per ballot that scores them higher than the other, and the candidate with the greater number of votes in the second round wins the election. STAR is an acronym for “Score Then Automatic Runoff”. Compare and contrast single-winner election methods here.

Occurs when a voter selects candidate(s) other than their preferred choice to prevent an unwanted outcome. For example, in a Single-Choice Plurality election, there is often a strong incentive for supporters of a minor party to vote for a major-party candidate with a greater chance of victory; this prevents a party or candidate the voter dislikes from winning. Compare with Sincere Voting.

The tendency of elected legislators to advocate on behalf of the values and interests of certain groups. Compare with Descriptive Representation.

The number of votes a candidate receives beyond the minimum needed in order to receive a seat in a Proportional Ranked Choice Voting election. These extra votes are transferred to voters’ next choice candidates. Surplus votes can be transferred as whole ballots using Random Reallocation or using fractional transfer methods such as the Gregory Method or Meeks Method.

A state for whom the outcome of a statewide election is difficult to predict because the margin is expected to be narrow. Swing states are sometimes known as "purple states" because they are not uniformly red (Republican) or blue (Democractic). Compare with Safe State.

The minimum number of votes needed to win a seat under various Multi-Winner voting methods. In Proportional Ranked Choice Voting, the threshold is the fewest votes that only the winning number of candidates can obtain, typically calculated using the Droop Quota. In List Proportional Representation, the threshold is the minimum needed for a party to win any seats and is known as the threshold of exclusion.

A top-two primary is a primary election in which all candidates appear on the same primary ballot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of their political party. Consequently, it is possible for two candidates from the same political party to win in a top-two primary and prevent any other parties from reaching the general election.

A Winner-Take-All voting method using two elections to identify a majority winner. In some cases, such as California’s top-two primary system, the second election is held regardless of whether a candidate received a majority in the first election. In other cases, known as a contingent runoff, the second election is only held if no candidate attains as majority in the first round. Also known as runoff elections.

A ballot in which the voter did not select any candidates for that office. Under Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), this term ordinarily means the voter has skipped voting for the office entirely, but it is sometimes erroneously also used to refer to an unused ranking on a ballot (more commonly called a skipped ranking).

One of the conditions included in Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. The voting method must account for all individual preferences.

The idea that constituents are represented by officials they did not vote for. For example, a Democratic voter in a safe Republican district is still virtually represented by Democrats elected elsewhere, even if they cannot vote for those Democrats. Compare to Actual Representation.

A phenomenon in plurality elections in which candidates with similar characteristics divide their supporters between themselves, potentially preventing any of them from earning enough votes to win the election. Vote Splitting can lead to the Spoiler Effect.

A federal law protecting the right of voters to vote and their opportunity to elect candidates from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, or language minority status. When a law has the effect of denying the right to vote or the opportunity to elect candidates to a group on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or language minority status, then a lawsuit may be brought under Section 2 to change that law. Voting methods which have been adopted in response to VRA lawsuits include Proportional Ranked Choice Voting, Cumulative Voting, and Limited Voting.

Equipment, materials, and documentation used to conduct elections, including to capture votes, count votes, and generate reports. Some people refer to voting methods like ranked choice voting (RCV) as voting systems, but methods like RCV are better understood as voting methods or electoral systems.

Equipment, materials, and documentation used to conduct elections, including to capture votes, count votes, and generate reports. Some people refer to voting methods like ranked choice voting (RCV) as voting systems, but methods like RCV are better understood as voting methods or electoral systems.

A term used to describe votes that are not useful in the election of the winning candidate or party. There are two sources of wasted votes: votes cast for candidates who are not elected, and votes cast for elected candidates who earned more votes than they needed to win.

The principle that a legislature should reflect only a single group of voters, usually the majority group. Rather than like-minded voters being able to elect representatives in proportion to their number, one group of voters can elect all representatives while other groups elect none. Compare to Fair Representation.