Scenarios

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First past the post voting

You have a group of friends for a sleepover. Mum has said you can have takeaway for dinner. The group is deciding what sort of food to have. Two choose sushi, one chooses pizza, one chooses chicken and one chooses Chinese. But Mum says, "Hang on! I'm not driving all over town. You'll have to decide on one kind of food."

Ask the students how they think the group can make a decision. Answer: take a vote. The results are:

Sushi is the winner but will that result keep most of the group happy? Even though two people love sushi, what if the other three really dislike it? The majority of the group, will be unhappy.

Preferential voting

Refer back to the group decision on food. Mum says to the group, ‘OK, if you can't have your first choice, what's your second choice?’

So, only one friend chose pizza as their first preference but now another three have chosen it as their second preference. That means there are now four people who would be happy if the decision was pizza.