Choosing a candidate other than preferred to undercut a less desired one
Part of the Politics series
Voting
Balloting
Ballots
Absentee ballot
Provisional ballot
Sample ballot
Candidates and Ballot measures
Write-in candidate
Electorate
Slate
Ticket
Collection
Ballot box
Compulsory voting
Early voting
Electronic voting
Open ballot
Polling place
Postal voting
Precinct
Vote center
Voting booth
Counting
Popular vote
Tally
Voting machine
Electoral systems
Plurality and majoritarian systems
First-past-the-post voting
Two-round system
Instant-runoff voting
Plurality-at-large voting
General ticket
Usual judgment
Proportional and semi-proportional systems
Single non-transferable vote
Cumulative voting
Binomial system
Party-list
Single transferable voting
Spare vote
Mixed-member systems
Mixed-member proportional
Additional member system
Mixed single vote (positive vote transfer)
Scorporo (negative vote transfer)
Mixed ballot transferable vote
Alternative Vote Plus
Dual-member proportional
Rural–urban proportional
Majority bonus system
Parallel voting (Mixed member majoritarian)
Voting strategies
Issue voting
Fusion voting
Split-ticket voting
Straight-ticket voting
Tactical voting
Vote pairing
Protest votes
Abstention
Donkey vote
Election boycott
None of the above
Refused ballot
Spoilt vote
Voting patterns and effects
Coattail effect
Likely voter
Paradox of voting
Passive electioneering
Vote splitting
Political apathy
Voter fatigue
Voter turnout
Protest votes
Electoral fraud
Ballot harvesting
Ballot stuffing
Felony disenfranchisement
Vote buying
Voter suppression
Voter caging
Prevention
Election ink
Secret ballot
Voter registration
Politics portal
v
t
e
Strategic or tactical voting is a situation where a voter considers the possible ballots cast by other voters in order to maximize their satisfaction with the election's results.[1] For example, in plurality or instant-runoff, a voter may recognize their favorite candidate is unlikely to win and so instead support a candidate they think is more likely to win (a tactic called favorite betrayal or lesser-evil voting).[2]
Gibbard's theorem and the multiwinner Duggan–Schwartz theorem show that no voting system has a single "always-best" strategy, i.e. one that always maximizes a voter's satisfaction with the result, regardless of other voters' ballots. This implies all voting systems can sometimes encourage voters to strategize. However, weaker guarantees can be shown under stronger conditions. Examples include one-dimensional preferences (where the median rule is strategyproof), dichotomous or two-party preferences (where score voting is strategyproof), and group-coalitional strategy (where maximal lotteries are strategyproof).
In large electoral districts, party list methods tend to be difficult to manipulate when using a low-bias apportionment method (like Webster or Huntington-Hill) and no electoral threshold. However, biased apportionment methods can create opportunities for strategic voting, as can small electoral districts (e.g. those used in the single transferable vote).
^Farquharson, Robin (1969). Theory of Voting. Blackwell (Yale U.P. in the U.S.). ISBN 978-0-631-12460-3.
^Green-Armytage, James (2014). "Strategic voting and nomination". Social Choice and Welfare. 42 (1). Springer: 111–138. doi:10.1007/s00355-013-0725-3. ISSN 0176-1714. JSTOR 43663746. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
for strategicvoting, as can small electoral districts (e.g. those used in the single transferable vote). Four common types of strategicvoting are lesser-evil...
casts just one vote in a multi-seat district is known as single non-transferable voting. Plurality voting is distinguished from majority voting, in which a...
expected utility, which is equivalent to approval voting. As a result, strategicvoting with score voting often results in a sincere ranking of candidates...
Approval voting is an electoral system in which voters can select any number of candidates instead of selecting only one. Approval voting ballots show...
other psychological factors. Voting advice applications and avoidance of wasted votes through strategicvoting can impact voting behavior. Voter behavior...
first-past-the-post (FPTP), instant-runoff voting (IRV), block voting, and ranked-vote block voting – one party or voting bloc can take all the seats in a district...
conservateur) was a strategicvoting campaign trialled by opponents of the Conservative Party of Canada. It was also known as the ABC campaign, or Vote ABC. During...
Score voting, sometimes called range voting or average score voting, is an electoral system for single-seat elections. Voters give each candidate a numerical...
imperatives for strategicvoting. A referendum on the voting system was held in conjunction with the 2011 general election, with 57.8% of voters voting to keep...
top candidate). By contrast, instant-runoff voting and single transferable voting use Ranked-choice voting (similarly to the Borda count), but in those...
voting take on many forms. Crossover votes are often strategic, though not necessarily so. It has been proposed that "mischievous" crossover voting is...
Burr dilemma or chicken dilemma is a kind of strategicvoting that may affect approval or score voting. The term was used in the The Journal of Politics...
Multiwinner approval voting, also called approval-based committee (ABC) voting, is a multi-winner electoral system that uses approval ballots. Each voter...
how polls directly affect voting is called strategicvoting. This theory is based on the idea that voters view the act of voting as a means of selecting...
Cardinal voting or score voting methods can reduce wasted votes. Strategicvoting is a voting approach that attempts to reduce the chance of a vote being...
organisations and individuals have endorsed strategicvoting, these include LeadNow - The group ran a campaign called Vote Together encouraging voters in "swing...
signals about strategicvoting. On October 12, she recommended that in close ridings, supporters of green policies should consider voting for the NDP or...
third term. For the first time, no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, forcing a run-off between Khaltmaagiin Battulga and Miyeegombyn...
Spriggs II, James F.; Wahlbeck, Paul J. (June 2005). "Passing and StrategicVoting on the U.S. Supreme Court". Law & Society Review. 39 (2). Law and Society...
Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation...
all seriously proposed voting systems are vulnerable in principle to strategic nomination. In the limited case in which votes are cast according to positions...
Less Susceptible to StrategicVoting" (PDF). S2CID 8230466. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-11-02. Pacuit, Eric (2019), "Voting Methods", in Zalta...
satisfies the median voter theorem under strategic and informed voting (where it is equivalent to approval voting). Systems that fail the median voter criterion...
Global Information
Politics portal