Voting methods
After analyzing the four means of voting, the plurality method remains my best option of carrying out election activities. First and foremost, plurality method is an electoral system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls the most among their counterparts is elected as a winner (Louwerse & Rosema, 2014). In other words, it can be regarded as single-choice voting. If it is being used in a system that comprises of many states, it can be referred to as bloc voting. It is the most common form of election system used in most elections of world countries namely; United States, India, United Kingdom and also Canada. While using this method, the ballots are usually categorized into two forms.
The simple form and a structured form. In a simple form, the name of the candidate is just written in manually by hands in a blank ballot. On the other side, a more structured ballot usually contains a list of all the candidates, and the voter is allowed to mark the name of a single candidate he/she has chosen. However, a structured ballot can also have a space for writing- in the candidate’s name. Consider some of the advantages of the plurality system firstly; it is easily understood by voters thereby the majority of the voters will be sure for whom they have elected as their choice. Secondly, it provides a quick decision, especially when casting the real vote. Its Simplicity in decision making comes as a result whereby the ballot is categorized into two forms ballot paper(s) thereby the voter is free to make his/her choice by writing in the name of the candidate of his choice or just by marking the name of a single candidate (Brill et al., 2017). Lastly, it is more convenient and less costly to operate than other methods of voting like plurality-with- elimination method and the pairwise comparison method.
According to Goodman (2014), the main argument against it is that in an election with more than two candidates, it may result in the election of a candidate who has received only a minority of the votes cast: for example, in a closely contested election with five candidates, the total required to win by a plurality could be as little as 20 percent of the total vote plus one. To overcome this disadvantage, an alternative such as an election by an absolute majority and proportional representation are used. The plurality method operates best in the case where there are only few parties contesting in the field.
References
Brill, M., Freeman, R., Janson, S., & Lackner, M. (2017). Phragmén’s Voting Methods and Justified Representation. In AAAI (Vol. 17, pp. 406-413).
Goodman, N. J. (2014). Internet voting in a local election in Canada. In The Internet and Democracy in Global Perspective(pp. 7-24). Springer, Cham.
Louwerse, T., & Rosema, M. (2014). The design effects of voting advice applications: Comparing methods of calculating matches. Acta Politica, 49(3), 286-312.