Election, shmelection — can’t we do it better?

With third-party candidacies becoming more common, today’s “plurality system” of voting forces voters to choose between “throwing away a vote” on a desirable but unelectable candidate and selecting the “lesser of two evils.”

But plurality voting is not the only way to run an election, notes The Why Files, a popular and critically acclaimed Web site at UW–Madison that explores the science behind the news. A report posted today, Nov. 16, outlines alternative voting systems that could be fairer or more accurate than plurality voting.

UW–Madison mathematician Terrence Millar says that while it’s true that any system can be subverted, misinterpreted or give mistaken results, the current morass in Florida shows why “plurality voting is not necessarily the best way to assess voter preferences.”

Had Florida voters been able to express more subtle choices, the outcome could have been quite different.

To see the Why Files report, visit: http://whyfiles.org