3-2-1 voting
In 3-2-1 voting, voters may rate each candidate “Good”, “Acceptable”, or “Rejected”. It has three steps:
- Find 3 Semifinalists: the candidates with the most “good” ratings. (If this is a partisan election, no two semifinalists may come from the same party).
- Find 2 Finalists: the semifinalists with the fewest rejections.
- Find 1 winner: the finalist who is rated above the other on more ballots.
Examples
Tennessee capital (center squeeze)
Imagine that Tennessee is having an election on the location of its capital. The population of Tennessee is concentrated around its four major cities, which are spread throughout the state. For this example, suppose that the entire electorate lives in these four cities, and that everyone wants to live as near the capital as possible.
The candidates for the capital are:
- Memphis, the state's largest city, with 42% of the voters, but located far from the other cities
- Nashville, with 26% of the voters, near the center of Tennessee
- Knoxville, with 17% of the voters
- Chattanooga, with 15% of the voters
The preferences of the voters would be divided like this:
| 42% of voters (close to Memphis) |
26% of voters (close to Nashville) |
15% of voters (close to Chattanooga) |
17% of voters (close to Knoxville) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
The three most-endorsed are Memphis (42), Nashville (26), and ? (17), for a total of 85 voters who endorsed at least one of them. Of those three, the two least-rejected are Nashville (0 rejections) and ? (42 rejections). Of those two, Nashville is preferred by 68 to 32.
High school mascot (chicken dilemma)
Imagine an election for a high school mascot, in which the options are “Bulldogs”, “Lions”, “Tigers”, or “Knights”, with the following votes:
| Faction size | "Good" candidates | "Acceptable" candidates | "Bad" candidates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Bulldogs, Knights | Lions, Tigers | |
| 20 | Bulldogs | Knights | Lions, Tigers |
| 35 | Tigers | Lions | Bulldogs, Knights |
| 25 | Lions | Tigers | Bulldogs, Knights |
The votes above lead to the following outcome:
| Candidate | "Good" ratings | "Acceptable" ratings | "Bad" ratings | 2-way score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lions | 25 | 35 | 40 | 25 |
| Tigers | 35 | 25 | 40 | 35 |
| Knights | 20 | 20 | 60 | |
| Bulldogs | 40 | 0 | 60 |
The semifinalists are Tigers, Knights, and Bulldogs. The finalists are Tigers and Bulldogs. The winner is Tigers.