Prepared by:
Joseph Malkevitch
Mathematics and Computing Department
York College (CUNY)
Jamaica, New York 11451-0001
email:
malkevitch@york.cuny.edu
web page:
http://york.cuny.edu/~malk
Fifty-five voters have produced the following collection of ballots on 5 choices - say textbooks for a college game theory course.
Questions:
1. Which book should be declared the winner?
2. What method did you use in deciding who the winner should be?
3. If a ranking (top choice, second choice, etc.) is to be made, rather than selecting a single winner, how would you rank the 5 choices?
4. Are you still happy with the plurality method of conducting elections after studying this example?
5. If different reasonable methods of conducting elections lead to different winners what lesson does this have for democracies?