Condorcet Method

A Condorcet method is one of several election methods that elects the candidate that wins a majority of the vote in every head-to-head election against each of the other candidates, that is, a candidate preferred by more voters than any others, whenever there is such a candidate.

Condorcet voting methods are named for the 18th-century French mathematician and philosopher Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, the Marquis de Condorcet, who championed such voting systems. However, Ramon Llull devised the earliest known Condorcet method in 1299. It was equivalent to Copeland's method in cases with no pairwise ties.

Sometimes an election has no Condorcet winner because there is no candidate who is preferred by voters to all other candidates. When this occurs the situation is known as a 'majority rule cycle', 'circular ambiguity', 'circular tie', 'Condorcet paradox', or simply a 'cycle'. This situation emerges when, once all votes have been tallied, the preferences of voters with respect to some candidates’ form a circle in which every candidate is beaten by at least one other candidate.

Election is the fact of electing, or being elected. Is is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.

Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where the Elections were not used were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortation, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.

Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. Psephology is the study of results and other statistics relating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results).

To elect means "to select or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections.

The most fundamental principle defining credible elections is that they must reflect the free expression of the will of the people. To achieve this, elections should be transparent, inclusive, and accountable, and there must be equitable opportunities to compete in the elections. The question of who may vote is a central issue in elections.

Electoral fraud can occur in advance of voting if the composition of the electorate is altered. The legality of this type of manipulation varies across jurisdictions. In many cases, it is possible for authorities to artificially control the composition of an electorate in order to produce a foregone result. The composition of an electorate may also be altered by disenfranchising some classes of people, rendering them unable to vote.

Groups may also be disenfranchised by rules which make it impractical or impossible for them to cast a vote. Notwithstanding, Voter intimidation through Violence or the threat of violence; Attacks on polling places; Legal threats; Disinformation; Vote buying; Coercion; Misleading or confusing ballot papers; Ballot stuffing; Miss-recording of votes; Voting machine integrity; Misuse of proxy votes; Destruction or invalidation of ballots; Tampering with electronic voting systems; and/or Artificial results.

Historically the size of eligible voters, the electorate, was small having the size of groups or companies. In many cases, nomination for office is mediated through pre-selection processes in organized political parties.

Non-partisan systems tend to be different from partisan systems as concerns nominations. As far as partisan systems, in some countries, only members of a particular party can be nominated. Or, any eligible person can be nominated through a process; thus allowing him or her to be listed.

Electoral systems are the detailed constitutional arrangements and voting systems that convert the vote into a political decision. While openness and accountability are usually considered cornerstones of a democratic system, the act of casting a vote and the content of a voter's ballot are usually an important exception.

The nature of democracy is that elected officials are accountable to the people, and they must return to the voters at prescribed intervals to seek their mandate to continue in office. Pre-decided or fixed election dates have the advantage of fairness and predictability.

The most expensive election campaign included US$7 billion spent on the 2012 United States presidential election and is followed by the US$5 billion spent on the 2014 Indian general election.

In many of the countries with weak rule of law, the most common reason why elections do not meet international standards of being "free and fair" is interference from the incumbent government.

Dictators may use the powers of the executive (police, martial law, censorship, physical implementation of the election mechanism, etc.) to remain in power despite popular opinion in favor of removal. Members of a particular faction in a legislature may use the power of the majority or supermajority (passing criminal laws, defining the electoral mechanisms including eligibility and district boundaries) to prevent the balance of power in the body from shifting to a rival faction due to an election.

Non-governmental entities can also interfere with elections, through physical force, verbal intimidation, or fraud, which can result in improper casting or counting of votes. Monitoring for and minimizing electoral fraud is also an ongoing task in countries with strong traditions of free and fair elections. Problems that prevent an election from being "free and fair" take various forms.

A sham election, or show election, is an election that is held purely for show; that is, without any significant political choice or real impact on results of election. In particularly corrupt regimes, the voting process may be nothing more than a sham, to the point that officials simply announce whatever results they want, sometimes without even bothering to count the votes. While such practices tend to draw international condemnation, voters typically have little if any recourse, as there would seldom be any ways to remove the fraudulent winner from power, short of a revolution...

Food for thought!