Halloween Contest 2025

Voting is open until November 8, 2025 at 11:00 PM CST

How do “rounds” work?

A “round” is the process of determining all the ranked-choice winners, and, if there are still more winners to determine, eliminating the lowest vote getters.

In Round 1, all first-choice votes are added up. If not enough choices receive enough votes to win, then the lowest vote getter is eliminated. Anyone who voted for the eliminated choice has their vote count for their next ranked choice in the following round. This continues for as many rounds as are needed to determine all the winners.

How was “votes to win” calculated?

For multi-winner contests, it’s about uncovering the broadest set of choices with strong enough support.

In an election with 3 winners, that means 25% plus one — 10 votes to win.

Why that amount? Well, it’s the point at which a choice becomes guaranteed to win. Any additional votes for that choice will not change the outcome. That’s why these “excess” votes also get redistributed to their next ranked choice in the following round.

How did the eliminations happen?

At the end of a round, if there are still more winners to be determined, the lowest vote getter is eliminated. Those who voted for the eliminated choice have their votes redistributed to their next highest ranked choice in the following round.

How were excess votes handled?

Multi-winner, ranked-choice voting ensures that all votes count towards the final outcome. There are two ways a vote can end up being “wasted” and RankedVote handles each situation:

• The first is a vote for a choice who can’t win. That’s handled through eliminations.
• The second is a vote for a choice who wins “too much.” Any excess votes beyond the number of votes needed to win doesn’t change the outcome. That’s why those excess votes are also redistributed to their next ranked choice in the following round.

What are “exhausted” votes?

When all of the choices a voter has ranked have been eliminated, the vote is considered “exhausted.” In other words, there is no “next ranked choice” to move the vote to.

This is possible if a voter doesn’t rank every choice. And, it becomes more likely if a voter only ranks one or two choices. So, the pro tip is to rank as many choices as you can!

How are ties handled?

If two (or more) choices have the same number of votes at the end of a round, RankedVote looks at how all voters ranked each of those choices. The choice with the least support amongst all voters is eliminated.