Chapter 1:

The Mathematics
of Elections
Section 1.1: The Basic
Elements of an Election

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Voting Theory

• The mathematics of elections

• First half is voting – how we cast our vote
• Second half is counting – how we decide the outcome
• Arrow’s impossibility theorem:
• “A method for determining election results that is democratic and
always fair is a mathematical impossibility.”

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The Paradoxes of Democracy
• The paradox is that the more opportunities
we have to vote, the less we seem to
appreciate and understand the meaning of
voting.
• Why should we vote?
• Does our vote really count?
• How does it count?

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The Elements of an Election
• Candidates – can be people, places, movies, pizza
toppings, etc.
• Voters – people with a say in the outcome
• Ballots – means of expressing your vote
• Single choice – pick one!
• Preference ballot – rank all candidates
• Truncated preference ballot – rank a specific
number of candidates
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 The Elements of an Election
• Outcome
• Winner only
• Partial ranking
• Full ranking
• Voting method – how we tabulate the ballots to
produce an outcome; how we handle a tie
• Most complicated part of the election
• Must be agreed upon ahead of time as different
methods may produce different outcomes
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 Example-The Math Club Election
The Math Appreciation Society (MAS) is a student
club dedicated to an unsung but worthy cause: that
of fostering the enjoyment and appreciation of
mathematics among college students. The MAS
chapter at Tasmania State University is holding its
annual election for president, and there are four
candidates: Alisha, Boris, Carmen, and Dave (A,
B, C, and D for short). Each member of the club is
eligible to vote, and the vote takes the form of a
preference ballot. Each voter is asked to rank each
of the four candidates in order of preference.
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Example-The Math Club Election (cont)
There are 37 voters who submit their ballots, and
the 37 preference ballots submitted are shown here.

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 Examples of Well-Know Elections
• The Academy Awards, or Oscars
• preference ballot
• winner only
• The Heisman Trophy
• truncated preference ballot
• winner only
• American Idol
• single-choice ballot
• full-ranking outcome – last place eliminated
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Properties of Preference Ballots
• A candidate in a higher position is always
preferred over a candidate in a lower
position.
• Relative preferences do not change if one
of the candidates withdraws

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 Example-The Math Club Election
Ballots with the same ordering of candidates
are then grouped together.

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 Preference Schedules
To make the ballot information easier to read
and use, we combine the results of the
individual ballots into a preference schedule. A
preference schedule summarizes all the input to
an election: the candidates, the voters, and the
balloting.

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 Example-The Math Club Election

Preference Schedule of Math Club Election

Number of Voters 14 10 8 4 1
1st A C D B C
2nd B B C D D
3rd C D B C B
4th D A A A A

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 Ties
In the case of a tie, the method for handling
ties must be specified. Some possibilities are:
• allow it to stand, having more than one
winner,
• have a run-off election,
• award the win to the candidate with fewer
last-place votes,
• determine the head-to-head winner between
the tying candidates,
• flip a coin!
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