It's Time for Electoral Math! Sometimes Your Vote Can Get Addition By Subtraction

In many elections, by the time the voter hits the voting booth, the choices are winnowed down to the point where there's just one vote to cast for the single name that's left on the ballot. Even in races where there are two or more parties, the choice is still to pull the lever, so to speak, for just one candidate of the two or more contenders.

And the candidate with the most votes wins. It’s that simple.

But that’s not always the case. There is another type of election contest. And in that situation, subtracting votes can add up to more for a preferred candidate.

I know, I know, it’s the weekend. Who wants to do math?

Those running in a number of local races, that’s who—and those who support fewer candidates than the number of spots. That can be the case in library and park board elections, when, say, four people want to be on a library board, but there are only three open slots.  

Or take the race to win . Six people are running for three seats. Each voter can cast up to three votes, for up to three candidates to fill those open seats.

Most voters will probably choose their top three candidates and cast one vote for each; three candidates will get one vote each.

But, perhaps a voter will decide to put all his eggs in one basket, so to speak. He chooses to make just one vote, to Candidate No. 1. That means two other candidates just lost two votes. It makes that one vote that much more important.

Frankly, I’m not good enough at this kind of stuff to determine if that strategy makes your one vote worth three times as much, or six times or just a fraction. I toyed with the idea of creating a spreadsheet to run different scenarios, for a truly fact-heavy analysis. I toyed. I gave up, quickly. I looked online but my eyes glazed when I hit “algorithm.” 

By no means am I advocating people give up their right to cast all the votes to which they are entitled.

It’s just that different rules apply when voters can cast multiple votes in a single contest. This is a case where less truly may mean more. And it’s something to consider come April 5 and in all similar elections.