Toolgeist › Productivity

Ranked Choice Voting Calculator — Instant Runoff, Condorcet, Borda

Paste ranked ballots and see who wins under five different counting rules at once: instant runoff (IRV, also called ranked choice voting), plurality, Borda count, Condorcet and the Schulze method. The runoff is shown round by round with eliminations, transfers and exhausted ballots, and the head-to-head matrix shows how every candidate fares one on one. The Tennessee capital preset reproduces every figure from Wikipedia’s Condorcet method article, and the 45-voter preset reproduces the Schulze method article’s matrices cell for cell — so you can check the counting against published results before trusting it with your own election.

How to use Ranked Choice Voting Calculator — IRV, Condorcet, Borda

  1. Paste one ballot per line, most preferred first, such as "Alice > Bob > Carol".
  2. Prefix repeated ballots with a count, such as "12: Alice > Bob".
  3. Compare the winners of all five methods at the top.
  4. Read the instant-runoff rounds and the head-to-head matrix to see why they differ.

Frequently asked questions

How does instant runoff (ranked choice voting) work?
Count every ballot for its highest-ranked candidate still in the race. If someone has more than half of those ballots, they win. Otherwise eliminate the candidate with the fewest and recount, so their ballots move to each voter’s next choice. Repeat until someone has a majority of the ballots still in play.
Why can the winner have less than 50% of all votes?
Because some ballots run out of choices. A voter who only ranked eliminated candidates has an exhausted ballot, which no longer counts toward anyone. Instant runoff guarantees a majority of the final round, not of everyone who voted, and this tool shows both percentages so the difference is visible.
What is a Condorcet winner?
The candidate who beats every other candidate in a one-on-one comparison. In the Tennessee example, Nashville is preferred to each other city by a majority, yet plurality elects Memphis and instant runoff elects Knoxville. Not every election has a Condorcet winner; when preferences form a cycle, the Schulze method resolves it.
Which method should my club or organisation use?
It depends on what you value. Instant runoff is widely used and easy to explain. Condorcet methods such as Schulze always elect the candidate who wins every head-to-head contest when there is one. Borda rewards broad acceptability but is easier to game. Arrow’s impossibility theorem shows no ranked method satisfies every fairness criterion, so agree on the rule before the vote, not after.
How are ties handled?
In an instant-runoff round, if two candidates tie for last, the one with fewer votes in the most recent earlier round that separates them is eliminated; if they were tied in every round, the page says so and uses alphabetical order. For an official election, use whatever tie rule your bylaws specify.
Do voters have to rank every candidate?
No. Partial ballots are fine. Unranked candidates count as below every ranked one for head-to-head comparisons and score zero in Borda, and a partial ballot becomes exhausted in the runoff once all its choices are eliminated.

Related Productivity tools

Also searched for: ranked choice voting calculator · instant runoff calculator · condorcet winner calculator · borda count calculator · schulze method calculator

Browse all 738 free tools on Toolgeist →