I desperately need this in America, I hate strategic voting for the lesser of the two evils.

This is how we vote here in Australia. I do like how it's a Wallaby that gives the clever idea ^_^

I'd vote for Queen Lion. She seems to always know what's up.

Like that a wallaby was the one to suggest Alternative Vote.. little nod to Australia's preferential voting system.

I cannot, absolutely cannot, believe us in the UK didn't vote to use AV in future. When we had the choice between AV and FPTP...the public chose to keep First Past the Post, just because they believed a damn marketing campaign by the two parties that WANT a two party system. It's the greatest failing in British democracy of the modern age to not adjust to this...

In the UK there was a referendum about the alternative vote, sadly only the people that were against it bothered to vote

I remember watching the BBC talking about the last british election and they interviewed a few people and one guy was like "yeah I voted for this party" and the interviewer asked "oh, what made you vote for them?" and he went "oh, i dont agree with them, but i hate the other party and dont want them incharge" and the interviewer then acted shocked like the guy had revolutionised first past the post voting

Squirrels voting for Owls? Preposterous!

The problem is that either gorilla or leopard are always in power so they will never allow alternative vote.

I wish the U.S. could adopt a system like this...

Question 5 on the ballot of my state (Maine, USA) is to implement the Alternative Vote for all elected offices except the President. You can bet I voted Yes in a heartbeat.

Alternative vote also allows small parties to actually get some votes, because no one says "they won't win, so I won't vote for them". I know this is partially covered in the spoiler effect, but this is a little different.

The slurring in this video is amazing. He's gotten so much clearer.

This man truly predicted the rise of Harambe

Why did people vote no to AV in the UK? I can only assume it's because we're idiots who are afraid of progress. Well done electorate, I was about 11 at the time of the referendum and I understood why AV is superior.

Everyone: "Wow Both Trump and Hillary suck..." Me: "Have you considered voting independent?" Everyone: "It would be a wasted vote, he/she wouldn't win" If we used this voting system we could effectively #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

I'm am so sick of the two party system. I want more choices than a turd sandwich or a giant douche. I know no political candidate will every completely coincide with my own opinions, but I really detest thinking about purely voting to simply keep someone else from being voted in.

The spoiler effect is absolutely horrid in Canada. The polls for our election in 2015 show that the two largest parties will be the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, with the Conservatives winning a narrow plurality. Aside from those two, the other major party is the NDP, who sits to the left of the Liberal Party. The problem is that the NDP only takes voters from people who would vote Liberal, never from the Conservatives. This results in the left vote being split, and the Conservatives taking power.

Man, coming back to these videos after so many years is crazy, these are like, what first started making me think about politics as a kid, they still do a great job of educating too, the one on First Past The Post voting does an excellent job of explaining what's wrong with America's current voting problem

This is actually pretty good. Why don't we have this system?

The United States citizens need to understand this. It could help cure some of our apathy.

Sure wish we had this in the USA today.

10 years later NYC adopts this voting system.

India's presidential election uses this system. And our politicians happily take advantage of this system.

In a student-organization at my university we were distatisfied with our voting system for new members and I came up with something that was pretty much like this. I now feel reassured I did a good job ^^

Ahhh when he said "we'll talk about that another time" he actually talked about it, so refreshing

Even if alternative vote is better, how could we In the US ever implement it? With the entrenched two parties against it, it can never gain the exposure in the media that would convince enough of the public for it to even come up for discussion.

Alternative vote system is nice for increasing the number of parties ... currently, a bit over 40% of US citizens self-identify as independent voters ~ when this becomes a true majority, an alternative vote system could be used to better represent the people ...

We *voted against* this in the UK a few years ago. It's so ironic.

As I write this comment the Maine GOP is working real hard to repeal ranked choice voting in Maine. Even though it was passed in a referendum by an absolute majority of Mainers. They argue that ranked choice voting violates the "one person one vote" principle. What do you have to say to that?

This is a really good explanation of the alternative vote system. Thanks for putting the work into this.

Ranked choice voting passed in New York City yesterday! I voted for it and volunteered to promote it. I learned about it here first. Thank you!

Turtle is the Bernie Sanders of this election.

Grey, you should consider a video about Score Voting. IRV (The Alternative Vote) is much better than FPTP, but still carries many of its problems, and does not completely eliminate the Spoiler Effect, in addition to being quite complicated. Score Voting (where you rate each candidate and choose the one with the highest average rating), on the other hand, is extremely simple and mathematically far superior to FPTP or IRV. Approval Voting (the system described in "Quick and Easy Voting for Normal People") is actually a special case of Score Voting where the scale is reduced to a binary.

These videos are very clear, entertaining, and informative. Thank you, keep up the good work!

The Hedgehog on 0:52 is so cuuute!!!

Alternative vote actually does have *a* spoiler effect, just not the same spoiler effect as FPtP.

The United States needs to adopt this system.

YES, and then it wouldnt be a vote of who's worse out of hilary clinton and the donald.

I love how it has to be the Queen Lion who switches the kingdom to AV, because if it was up to the gorillas and leopards, it would never happen.

America needs to watch this video

We Desperately need this. Now more than ever.

This channel has such consistently good content. Keep up the good work

Thanks. This is BY FAR the best explanation of FPTP, AV etc. that I have yet seen! AND most entertaining!

This system really shined in the most recent 2022 Australian federal election where the independents and greens got a whole load of seats.

Grey, I doubt you will actually read this but Maine has actually adopted this but is trying to repeal it. I think it would be awesome if you revisited the topic even just briefly in the hopes that Maine won't make the mistake of going back.

Thank you for uploading!! Your videos on voting are helping me study for my political science final! :D

We are having a referendum on this in BC, Canada (although the name is different). This is and another video you made are the first ones to make any sense to me. Thank You!

This was the video that kickstarted my interest in ranked-choice voting many years ago and it's the biggest reason I'm supporting presidential candidate Andrew Yang in the 2020 Democratic primaries. He's the only one bringing this option to light. Yang 2020!

I feel like American can be more functional if they switch to this over FPTP.

These voting-systems and gerrymandering videos are probably among the most important content on youtube. I love Grey and most of his content, but these are still some of his best videos to this day

Coming back to see this years later shows me how much Grey has improved!

So people know, this actually is getting some traction in the U.S. The entire state of Maine has adopted it and is even using it for federal elections such as the president. There are also several cities that use it throughout the country. If you're a fan of it, there's probably a local organization campaigning for it that you could support. I will say that this video is slightly wrong however. Alternative Vote (aka Ranked Choice Vote or Instant Runoff Vote) is susceptible to the spoiler effect. It's not immune like this video claims. But the spoiler effect is much less likely to occur. The only way for a third party to spoil an election using this voting system is if the 3rd party is more popular than the candidate who otherwise would have won, but less popular than the candidate who would have lost. Which is kind of a weird and unique situation that doesn't happen so often, but it DOES happen (google Burmingham Vermont 2009 mayoral election). Also, this voting system does have a problem that FPTP doesn't. It doesn't have monotonicity, which is a really weird fancy word but what it means is that with the Alternative Vote you can sometimes make your favorite candidate lose by saying they're your first choice candidate, when they otherwise would have won if you had rated them lower. I personally think this is a serious flaw, you shouldn't be able to cause a worse outcome by giving your candidate a higher score, but it is fairly rare. Even with these flaws, it is a MUCH better system than FPTP. If you're interested in other voting methods, my favorite method is STAR voting. Instead of just ranking candidates, you score each candidate from 0 to 5 stars. Then the two candidates with the highest score are pitted against each other in an instant runoff, similar to the Alternative Vote. Most of the problems with the Alternative Vote come from the multiple elimination rounds and not looking at everyone's preferences equally (only some people ever have their 2nd or 3rd choice looked at). STAR voting fixes that. All of your preferences are looked at and then the two most preferred candidates runoff against each other. You might ask "why not just elect the most preferred candidate?" Well, that actually is a voting system known as Score Voting or Range Voting, and it also isn't a bad method. But it has been shown to be very susceptible to strategic voting, just like the video said about FPTP. By having the runoff election at the end, STAR voting squashes the benefits of strategic voting and lets people just be honest about their preferences. Honesty is your best choice in STAR voting. It is essentially combining the Alternative Vote with Score Voting in order to get rid of the drawbacks and keep the benefits, making it a really good system.

Damn it Turtle, every election it's the same thing!

Love this video thanks so much for making it

Just wanted to say thanks for the video, my home state of Maine is voting on changing to a similitude voting method and this video has helped me explain it to many people.

Alternative vote is definitely better than FPTP but we still have only 2 big parties and a few minor parties of any note. Unless you're majorly into politics, its still voting for the lesser of two evils because any other vote is pretty meaningless

Greetings from 2020! In a Ballot Measure the state of Alaska in the USA has voted in favor of creating a ranked-choice voting system!! Huge win for democracy and alternative voting. Your video has been so influential over the years. Thank you for making it CPG Grey!! BTW at 2:55 in this video you mention the concept of "Condorcet Winner" and how you will do another video on this. Could you please?

Excellent video series, thankyou so much :D

Love this! Preferential voting is so much better

We need this now I’m basically forced to vote against the party I want so I can block the tories from taking over my constituency

We need to combine all of your amazing political videos and air them after the Evening News.

I love that alternative voting is the system we use here in Australia :)

I’m watching this video on the exact day it was released 10 years ago. Watch me watch this video again but 10 years from now lol

I wish we could have this in my country. There's a problem though: A. Everyone is happy, except the two main parties that got into office through the old system. B. The people with the power to change the system are the ones in office making the rules. C. Those people in office are almost all from the two main parties. D. Refer to letter A.

Alternative voting is better than First Past the Post, but it's worst than many other possible systems. There are many ways in which alternative voting produces pathological results, such as: voting for someone can decrease the chances they'll win. Look up Approval Voting: vote for every candidate you "approve" of, without rankings. It's a lot simpler to explain and understand, can be implemented with existing ballots and machines, and eliminates most of the problems with alternative voting, but is less well known. Spread the word!

Explained so well! Thanks a bunch :)

Massachusetts has this as a ballot question this November. I really hope it passes, because I sure am voting yes!

Poor turtle, he always loses... He's my favourite though!

Approval voting is a good way forward as well.

"there isn't time to explain here" Math geek: *HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME*

Nice explanation, I didn't think I'd understand it at first, but I got it. This is a good idea.

Instead of a vote, rate each candidate on a scale from -1 to 1. This solves all the problems, has excellent granularity, and produces the most desirable candidate.

this system is still not spoiler free. Take 3 candidates, A, B, C with a preference schedule that looks like: 2 votes: C > A > B (C preferred over A and B. A preferred over B) 3 votes: A > B > C 4 votes: B > C > A By this method, in the first round, C will have 2 votes, A will have 3, B will have 4. C is eliminated, and their votes go to A (by preference schedule) In the second round, A will have 5 votes, B will have 4. B is eliminated and A is the winner. Now, if B is removed from the election cycle, the preference schedule will look like 2 votes: C > A 3 votes: A > C 4 votes: C > A Here, C has 6 votes, and A has 3. A is eliminated, and C wins. Therefore, candidate B is a spoiler for candidate C, and this method is not spoiler free!

such great videos!!! thank you so much !!

Ever since I first hear about this about 15 years ago I thought this was the best way to vote.

Would you consider making another video in this series going over the STAR (Score then automatic runoff) voting method?

Please may we have this system. T.T

I had proposed this system a long time ago. Nobody believed me that it would work. Thankyou for sharing this concept!

Nice work Wallaby. (Nice reference too)

I think the best kind of election is like the one in the papal conclave. Candidates are set up and the people vote until one gets a two thirds majority. One balloting per day to make it not tiring.

Here's one potential issue I have with this system: Imagine we have a system with four parties: A, B, C, D, and E. Now we'll use the assumption that you appear to make in the video where everyone who votes for party A first has a list identical to their fellow A-voters, and the same for the other 4 parties' voters. Now lets look at all of the lists and how many people voted for each candidate. A, C, B, D, E 25% B, C, A, D, E 15% C, B, A, D, E 05% D, C, B, E, A 25% E, C, D, A, B 30% Now in this system, C would be the least popular candidate, getting eliminated first, and having his votes redistributed to B. A, B, D, E 25% B, A, D, E 20% D, B, E, A 25% E, D, A, B 30% Then B is eliminated and has their votes given to A. A, D, E 45% D, E, A 25% E, D, A 30% Then D is eliminated and has his votes handed to E. A, E 45% E, A 55% E is declared winner under this system. The problem I have with this system is that C is clearly the best candidate, because while very few people wanted him the most, everybody approved of him. 75% preferred him over A, 85% preferred him over B, 75% preferred him over D, and 70% of the populations *wanted him more than the person who won*. If it was 1v1 with just C vs *ANY* of his competition, he would have won by a landslide. Yet, he lost because he was an appealing candidate to everyone, but he wasn't the most appealing candidate to anyone. E won, yet nearly everyone who didn't vote for him ranked him dead last or close to it and he is clearly not wanted by ANYONE but strong E supporters, and the only reason he wins is because, in D's eyes, he's a lesser evil than A. But you know who else is a lesser evil than A in D's eyes? C. In nearly everyone's eyes (except A voters, obviously). This system doesn't solve every issue with voting. C would have won a 1 on 1 election with any of these people, and he should have won, but doesn't under this system. He wouldn't have won under FPTP either, so at least Alternative Vote is still better than FPTP.

In Australia, our federal Government is elected by this system. We call it preferential voting.

The problem with is that if your first choice is popular, your second choice is irrelevant. For example .. consider the graph at 1:52. Turtle is eliminated. What if Turtle was everyone's second choice? That would make turtle the most commonly popular candidate - but with AV we just eliminated him. So then where do the second choice votes go? they are thrown out. So in order to make this work, you would have to keep all candidates in the running, and increment their votes as you go through each elimination ... until you only have one.

Ranked Choice Voting is on the ballot in Massachusetts and Alaska in the 2020 general election. If you know anyone voting in those states, send them this video!

0:14 "the sissenz"

Good sir, I don't know why you are doing the good lord's work and spreading this information since as early as 2011, but thank you.

Is it wrong that I find this series so greatly elevated by the animal theme? Politics can be so dry and this theme makes it so charming.

Well we really need that in all democracies ^^

Could you do a video about other voting systems like score voting? Many people will look at this and think alternative vote is the best, but it still trends towards two parties and it still has the spoiler effect where switching votes from one candidate to another can make a third candidate win.

What I find funny is that turtle is a extremist and when turtle drops out. Turtle voter vote for owl, a centrist.

I remember 12 year old me watching these because I found them interesting as anything, now I'm using them to prep for my poly sci final. Thanks Grey!

I'm from Canada. Our democracy is horrible. First-past-the-post ruins everything.

Thank you... This is the real change we need.

love the flow chart!

Just watched this and the last two. I am now invested in animal politics

If only The U.S.A were as simple as the wild.

check out Approval Voting. it's simpler, and can have the same effect.

We need this in the United States, but the GOP would be against because they know they would lose every time.

This should be used all over the world. So amazing.