BTR-Score Voting

BTR-Score vs Choose 1 Plurality Voting

A New Version of an Ancient Method

Alternative Voting Methods

BTR-Score is Easy

BTR-Score (Score Voting with a Bottom Two Runoff) lets you rate each candidate. Give your favorite candidate a 10 and the worst candidate a zero. Rate the other candidates in comparison. Ties are allowed.

Each candidate's total score is determined. A tournament is seeded with the scores. The highest total score earns the top seed; the candidate with the lowest score is the bottom seed.

In the tournament's first contest, the candidates with the two lowest scores compete. The candidate preferred on most ballots wins. In the next contest, the winner goes against the next lowest candidate. This continues until the surviving candidate meets the highest seed; that contest elects the winner.

If you rated Candidate B a 7 and Candidate C a 3, your vote will go to Candidate B when B and C meet in the tournament. If you gave B and C equal scores, your vote does not help or harm either candidate.

BTR-Score vs Choose 1 Plurality Voting

Support All Your Favorite Candidates
In a Choose 1 race, you often must vote for the lessor of two evils instead of your favorite candidate to avoid helping the major party candidate you detest. Vote splitting is unfair to you and your favorite candidate. BTR-Score ends vote splitting and spoilers; you can support every candidate you like and dis the ones you don't like.

Voters gain a powerful voice in fair elections. Voter turnout will grow.

Choose 1 Locks in Two Party Rule

Because voters fear the spoiler effect, they seldom vote for independent or third-party candidates. Their support is always under-reported in Choose 1 races. This harms efforts to recruit members, generate publicity, raise funds, and win elections.

Two party rule is locked in. Are you satisfied with our dysfunctional duopoly of power?

By letting voters rate all candidates, BTR-Score gives third-party and independent candidates a fair chance and a true voice.

Choose 1 is Unreliable

Voting system experts rank Choose 1 plurality voting near the bottom of the heap. Only random choice and dictatorship are lower. To learn more, please visit Plurality Voting Pros and Cons.

Spoilers are a threat in every Choose1 election with over two candidates. Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft split votes in the 2012 election, allowing Woodrow Wilson to win with less than 42% of the vote. Ralph Nader spoiled Al Gore's chances in the 2000 election. Robert Kennedy Jr. threatened Biden and Trump in 2024. Trump was smart enough to offer him a job. BTR-Score is not prone to spoilers.

Strategy

Choose 1 voting forces you to make strategic decisions in every election with three or more candidates. A faction can split its opponent s vote by running a straw candidate with a similar platform.

Because BTR-Score resists strategy, you can sincerely rate all candidates with confidence. In a BTR-Score race, bullet voting (giving your top candidate 10, and all others 0) would harm the chances of your second choice without helping your favorite. No candidate can win the tournament without defeating their strongest rival. An organized strategic campaign would run into the same problem.

A New Version of an Ancient Method

BTR-Score is a Condorcet method; it will always elect the candidate who can beat all other candidates one-on-one. In the rare election with no beats all candidate, BTR-Score will elect a deserving winner, the champion of the tournament. Ramon Llull proposed the beats all concept in 1299. Nicolas Caritat, the Marquis de Condorcet, popularized beats all method in the late 18th century.

BTR-Score is as fair and reliable as it gets for single-winner voting methods. Because it is a Condorcet method, we know exactly what it will do; it needs no additional testing. More complex Condorcet methods, such as Smith-Score, can only equal BTR-Score.

Defenders of the status quo will say that we cannot use BTR-Score in American elections because BTR-Score has not been used American elections. They support Choose 1 because its flaws protect the dominant party in each state and district.

Alternative Voting Methods

Approval Voting and Ranked Choice Voting are in use in the United States. Both threaten the status quo.

Ranked Choice Voting

Like plurality voting, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is prone to spoilers. Sarah Palin, through no fault of her own, spoiled the chances of fellow Republican Nick Begich in a RCV 2022 congressional race.^[1] Begich was the Condorcet winner, and he had the widest support. Republicans do not trust RCV; Democrats will lose faith in RCV when they lose an important RCV election in a similar fashion. RCV is an improvement over Choose 1, but it is not good enough.

Approval Voting

Approval Voting has performed well. It rewards candidates who have broad support; creating a strong incentive to reach out to all voters and avoid divisive rhetoric. Approval is not as expressive as BTR-Score; it limits voters to either approving or rejecting each candidate. Approval Voting elects the candidate with the widest support. It would be unusual for it not to elect a beats all winner. We recommend Approval Voting as a solid improvement over Choose 1 and Ranked Choice Voting, and a worthy rival to BTR-Score.

State Constitutional Requirements

Like Approval and RCV, BTR-Score has a sound argument for compliance with the state constitutions that require election winners to have the highest, largest, or greatest number of votes or a plurality of the votes.

Revive American Democracy with BTR-Score

BTR-Score is fair, reliable and easy to use. It is immune to vote splitting and spoilers. It enables voters to express their opinions of every candidate. It resists strategic voting and complies with most state constitutions.

BTR-Score is a game changer for American democracy. Lord knows we need one. Yet few politicians know about BTR-Score. Please inform your elected representatives. Also, please share this critical page with your friends and on the web.