The decision record
Ranked-choice counting for small groups
Second ChoiceWho wins when second choices count?
Everyone ranks the options, best first. If no option has more than half of the first choices, the last-placed option drops out and its ballots move to each voter's next choice - round after round, until one option passes half. Paste your group's ballots and watch it happen.
Try a sample:
1 The vote free
Separate rankings with > (or commas). Start a line with 3 x for three identical ballots. Option numbers work too. A name before a colon is dropped - ballots stay anonymous. You can also drop a .txt or .csv file on the box.
Add one ballot
Send the link to the group: it opens a ranking card with your question and options. Each voter copies one ballot line and sends it back for you to paste here.
2 The count free
3 Write the decision record
One run explains the finished count round by round, names the outcome type, says what the second choices and the one-on-one match-ups show, and writes a decision record plus one next step for you. It never recounts: the page checks every number in the reply against its own count.
Pricing as soon as the session is ready...
Sign in
The decision record - none yet
-The page's check
4 Saved counts
How the count works
Each round counts every ballot for its highest-ranked option still in the count. An option with more than half of the ballots still in the count wins. Otherwise the option with the fewest votes is eliminated and its ballots move to their next choice still in the count; a ballot with no such choice left is exhausted and stops counting. A tie for fewest eliminates the option with fewer first-round votes, then the one listed later. Two options left on equal votes is a dead heat - the page never breaks it for you.
The outcome type follows a fixed order: dead heat; first-round majority (decided in round 1); comeback win (another option had more first choices than the winner); photo finish (final gap of 1 ballot or at most a tenth of the final count); otherwise won on transfers. Second choices and one-on-one match-ups are shown as a cross-check, not used to decide.
For small, informal group choices such as a club, a household or a team. It is not an election system and not legal or governance advice. Ballots stay anonymous and stay in your browser unless you save them to your account.