Exhausted ballot: Difference between revisions
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Although this is theoretically possible, it is unlikely. But it also is grounded in assumptions about runoffs that overlook of how much more likely it is to have “exhausted voters” in a traditional runoff than “exhausted votes” in an instant runoff. Runoffs usually mean that fewer voters have a meaningful say in the decisive election.
==Wasted votes==
*https://www.starvoting.org/wasted_votes
What's the difference between an exhausted ballot in RCV and a vote of no-preference in STAR?
An exhausted ballot in RCV is NOT COUNTED in the deciding round, even if it could have made a difference.
A vote of no-preference in STAR Voting's automatic runoff round IS COUNTED and the voter intent, to support or oppose both finalists equally, was respected.
It all comes down to '''voter intent'''. Voter intent should not be corrupted by the system.
The system should count your vote and it should be able to make a difference if possible and help you gain representation, but in Ranked Choice Voting that's not necessarily the case. This can often be traced back to the fact that the RCV algorithm doesn't count most of the rankings voters put down on their ballots. Which of your rankings will be counted and which will not depends on the order of elimination. As a result, it may not be safe to vote for your favorite in RCV, just like with traditional Choose-One Voting. Worse, in some cases, voting your conscience can actually backfire, resulting in a worse outcome than if you hadn't voted at all in RCV.
Voters in any system can choose to vote in a way that's not as effective as it could have been, but the STAR Voting system won't waste the vote of a voter who showed up and voted their conscience and your vote will never backfire. It's also next to impossible for an inexperienced voter to accidentally waste their vote in STAR Voting.
Wasted Votes: Order of elimination and incomplete tabulation. In RCV, a voter's other candidates may be eliminated before their first choice, so that by the time their favorite is eliminated the vote may have nowhere to transfer to. This is called an exhausted ballot and these ballots are not counted in the deciding round of the election. On average in competitive RCV elections over 10% of ballots are exhausted. In some cases, the eliminated candidate may have actually been the candidate preferred over all others, but because RCV doesn't count most of the rankings voters put down, it can fail to elect the most popular candidate.
Compare these uncounted exhausted ballots in RCV to a vote of no-preference in STAR Voting, where a voter explicitly chose to score both finalists equally. These votes are counted and do make a difference to help advance the candidates who were more preferred. Allowing voters to give equal scores in STAR is the key to preventing spoiled ballots, and it's also key for eliminating vote-splitting between similar candidates and maintaining election accuracy in larger fields of candidates.
==Scientific articles / studies==
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