# Second Choice

> Count a small group's ranked vote by instant runoff, see every round as ribbons, and get a plain decision record.

Second Choice is a web app for small, informal group decisions - a shared hallway's paint colour, a team's lunch spot, a club's next pick. The organiser lists 2 to 6 options and pastes the anonymous ballots, one per line, each ranking options best first ("3 x Sage > Oat" stands for three identical ballots; a name before a colon is dropped and never counted or sent).

## What runs free, in the browser

- The instant-runoff count: each round counts every ballot for its highest-ranked option still in the count; more than half of the ballots still in the count wins; otherwise the option with the fewest votes is eliminated (a tie for fewest goes to fewer first-round votes, then to the option listed later) and its ballots move to their next choice. Ballots with no choice left are exhausted. Two options left on equal votes is a dead heat, which the page never breaks.
- A ribbon chart of every round, showing where each eliminated option's ballots went.
- Second choices, one-on-one match-ups between every pair of options, and the outcome type.
- Downloads: chart as SVG or PNG (or copied as an image), the count as Markdown, CSV (one row per option per round) and JSON.
- Collecting ballots: a voting link opens a ranking card with the question and options (carried in the URL fragment only); each voter copies one ballot line and sends it to the organiser, who can also add a single ballot from a picker. The page never collects ballots itself.

## The one metered task: explain-the-count

One run on gpt-terra explains the finished count. Input fields (all strings): task, question, options, ballots, rounds, first_choice_leader, second_choices, head_to_head, optional retry_note. Reply: outcome (dead-heat, first-round-majority, comeback, photo-finish or won-on-transfers, chosen in that order), headline, one note per round, second_choices, cross_check, record (the decision record), next_step (for the organiser) and last_word. The page re-checks every number in the reply against its own count. Full contract with worked examples: https://second-choice.skillsafe.ai/api.html

## Limits

For informal group choices only; not an election system and not legal or governance advice. The model never recounts, never guesses who voted for what or why, and never breaks a dead heat.

## Sources

- Built on the SkillSafe skill @product-on-purpose/tool-note-and-vote: https://skillsafe.ai/skill/@product-on-purpose/tool-note-and-vote
- Inspired by wider public interest in ranked-choice voting.