A Simpler Path to Fair Elections: Consensus Choice Voting for Final Four Races

The perceived complexity of Condorcet voting methods has been an obstacle to their use in political elections, even though Condorcet systems could help solve serious problems afflicting American democracy. In a new peer-reviewed article, Wesley H. Holliday introduces a simple form of Consensus Choice Voting specifically designed for elections involving up to four candidates ("Final Four elections"). In this method, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If one candidate wins all head-to-head matchups against the others, that candidate wins outright. If no candidate achieves this, the candidate who loses only one matchup by the smallest margin of votes wins. The method is designed to be simple and clear to voters, avoiding common issues such as complexity and opacity found in other ranked-choice methods like Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). This method guarantees the election of a broadly preferred candidate, preventing scenarios like the election of Condorcet losers (those who lose every head-to-head matchup), and promoting fairness, stability, and representative outcomes.

Read the full article (Routledge, 2025).