Different Election Systems Can Produce Different Winners with the Same Set of Votes

Different election systems can result in significantly different winners and these systems can have a material impact on the working of our Democracy.

Election reform has been building momentum across the country, but most voters still know very little about the reforms being proposed and how they might impact the types of candidates who run and win elections.

Reform Elections Now recently completed a series of simulations of the 2024 election to demonstrate these reforms. We then calculated the results using our traditional first-past-the-post system as well as a number of other systems, such as Ranked Choice, Condorcet, and Approval Voting and Nonpartisan Primaries.

While our survey does not fully reflect the full balance of American voters, the results
showed that with the same set of votes, different systems produced different winners.

• The candidate who won the first-past-the-post election did not win when we
  calculated the results using other systems.
• In fact, the different systems produced three different winners.

If the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch is discouraging to you or if you want to better understand how we can reduce the gridlock in U.S. politics, please view the event video and presentation to learn how different election systems could produce different winners, even with the same set of votes.