IRV Election Results: Favorite Celestial Object (besides Earth)

To celebrate Earth Day, Santa Monica held a festival at the Third Street Promenade, and Santa Monica Ranked Voting was there to conduct an IRV election to elect Santa Monicans' favorite celestial object (besides Earth). The election was wildly successful, as 90 passersby took time out of their Earth Day to rank their celestial favorites in exchange for free candy. We thank all of those who submitted a ballot, and even those who just didn't cross the street to avoid the crazy ladies.

We would like the winner to be the candidate that a majority of voters prefer. And we would like everyone that votes to help determine the outcome. So we're using Instant Runoff Voting, where each voter indicates their first choice and their runoff choices all on the same ballot. That way, if no candidates gets a majority of votes, then we can have a runoff, instantly, between the top candidates.

Ready?

We had 90 voters in this election, so the winner needs a majority (50% + 1 vote = 46 ) to win. Here is how all of you earthlings out there voted for your first choice for Favorite Celestial Object (besides Earth):

Round 1:

Sun24
Moon20
Saturn11
Mars6
Small Magellanic Cloud5
Cher9
Halley's Comet8
Sagittarius A7

So, if we just look at who got the most first-choice votes, the Sun would win. This is how we elect the president, governor, state representatives -- it is how most American elections work. But notice that most voters did not prefer the Sun. In fact, 66 voters (73%) preferred another candidate. Since no candidate got a majority of votes, we will go to a runoff. Since the Small Magellanic Cloud got the fewest votes, she is eliminated and is not a candidate in the runoff. Now, anyone whose favorite candidate was the Small Magellanic Cloud gets to vote for their 2nd choice in the runoff. Now see how the remaining candidates stack up.

Round 2:

Sun24
Moon21
Saturn12
Mars6
Cher10
Halley's Comet10
Sagittarius A7

Still, no candidate has the 46 votes necessary to win. Now we eliminate Mars, who has the fewest votes, and have a runoff between the top 6 candidates remaining.

Round 3:

Sun24
Moon23
Saturn13
Cher11
Halley's Comet12
Sagittarius A7

Sagittarius A (the black hole at the center of our galaxy) is eliminated in this round... he must not have run a very illuminating campaign. I am so sorry we said that.

Round 4:

Sun25
Moon26
Saturn14
Cher12
Halley's Comet13

Cher is finally eliminated in this round, but she put up a good fight.

Round 5:

Sun30
Moon30
Saturn15
Halley's Comet15

There's a tie for last place! WHATEVER WILL WE DO?!?! First, we point out that ties are rare in real IRV elections, like the ones that elect the president of Ireland. Weird things can happen when there are very small numbers of voters. To resolve the tie in this case, we just flip a coin, and Saturn loses out.

Round 6:

Sun35
Moon37
Halley's Comet17

In Round 6, there was one voter who had not ranked the remaining candidates. So now there are 89 voters participating in this runoff, and the threshold to win changes to 50% of 89 = 45.

It's been a tight race between the Sun and the Moon, an epic battle between two top-notch celestial objects. Who will come out on top when Halley's Comet is knocked out?!

Round 7:

Sun42
Moon47

The Moon wins by a nose! Notice that, without Instant Runoff Voting, the Sun would have won this election in Round 1 with the support of only 27% of voters! But IRV shows that a majority of voters prefer the Moon! Hooray, IRV!