Borda Count - The Better Election System

So, i recently mentioned in a comment the Borda system for holding elections, and how it could be used to solve a lot of the problems of modern politics in several countries across the world. This is a post where I write about the Borda system in detail

While democratically elected governments are on average better than others, one problem that has always existed in virtually all democracies is the problem of ensuring that politicians cannot pander to certain sections of the public, and gain enough votes to win elections, while essentially ignoring, or even antagonizing other sections of the public. In a lot of cases, people have won elections just by focusing on a few constituencies/states/districts, or just by concentrating on a few communities, in the process developing a feeling of outright hatred from other groups. 

Democracy is about broad consensus, about compromise; Not about winning 50.000001% of the vote and then doing only what your supporters want you to do.

There's a reason that politics has become so polarized these days, because all it has become is a contest where you win the election, then do whatever your supporters want you to do, regardless of if your victory was narrow or wide.Also, there is the problem where people don't vote in support of a candidate, but in opposition to a candidate.

I think the solution to this is a type of election that is today known as the Borda Count. The Borda count was developed independently several times, but is named for the 18th-century French mathematician and political scientist Jean-Charles de Borda, who devised the system in 1770. It is used in a few places in the world, but it has no mainstream support.

So how does the Borda Count Work?

Essentially, in a Borda Count, instead of selecting a single choice, voters rank options/candidates in order of preference.

So, for example,if you have 5 choices - A,B,C,D,E; you give a ranking for each of the 5 choices. For simplicity, let's assume that there are only 3 voters.

This is how voter 1 ranks them:

This is how voter 2 ranks them:

This is how voter 3 ranks them:

Now, in a normal election, assuming that the first choice in the list is the one the voters select as their choice in the election, B would win, given that B has 2/3 votes. But in the Borda system, we actually add up the points given to all choices by the voters, and the choice that has the most no of points wins.

Point Tally:

A - 4+3+5 = 12 points

B - 5+5+1 = 11 points

C - 2+1+2 = 5   points

D - 3+2+4 = 9   points

E - 1+4+3 = 8   points

As you can see, A, in spite of being ranked first only by a single voter, would win the election in the Borda system.

What are the advantages of the Borda System?

If you look at the winning choice in the example - A, you'll see that it got 3 or more points from every voter, which means that every voter thought of A as a pretty good choice. Basically, the candidate with the broadest support won. 

In the Borda system, you must build broad consensus across the electorate if you want to win.

This generally means you will have to listen and consider everyone's voice. You can't just target one community and pander to them - because if you do so, everyone else is going to dump you.

The second advantage is that it reduces polarization in politics. If you see the rankings, B got rank 1 from 2 voters, but was ranked the last by the third voter. This choice would have been a choice that would polarize politics between the 2 groups. It would increase enmity between the different groups, which is the exact opposite of what leaders are supposed to do - build consensus.

On the other hand - choice A was generally well liked by all voters. A wasn't the absolute favorite for some, but it also won't cause those voters to pull out their pitchforks the moment it wins the elections.

What are the weaknesses of the Borda System?

Like any human system, the Borda system has weaknesses. The main weakness, is called strategic nomination. Strategic nomination is a strategy where more than candidate with the same ideology competes in the election, increasing the chances of a candidate with that strategy winning the election. While in normal elections, fielding too many candidates can be a disadvantage as it splits the vote, strategic nomination works very well in Borda voting systems, because voters have to give a ranking to every candidate.

In conclusion, I believe that a lot of the big problems that plague most democracies today can be at least partially solved by implementing the Borda voting system. The Borda System will make our leaders more willing to compromise, make our politics less polarized,and in general, will let the populace express it's intentions more effectively.   

Thank you for reading this post. If you liked it, please upvote and resteem it. Follow me for more content like this :-)

@harshallele

Sources:

Cover image from Pexels