Paste the ranked ballots once and see who wins under first-choice plurality, the Borda count, instant-runoff (ranked choice), and the Condorcet pairwise method — all at once. The quickest way to tell whether your winner is genuine consensus or an artifact of the counting rule. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Separate choices with >, a comma, a tab or →. Names are case-insensitive. Ballots may rank a subset; unranked options sit tied at the bottom.
Every ranked election starts from the same ballots, but different counting rules ask different questions — and can crown different winners. This tool runs the four best-known single-winner methods on one ballot set so you can see the disagreement directly instead of trusting one rule blindly.
| Method | What it asks | Tends to favor |
|---|---|---|
| Plurality | Who has the most 1st-place votes? | The largest single faction |
| Borda count | Who scores highest across every rank position? | Broadly-liked compromises |
| Instant-runoff (RCV) | Who survives when the weakest option is dropped each round? | Options with a solid first-choice base |
| Condorcet | Who beats every other option one-on-one? | The head-to-head strongest, if one exists |
Load the example above (five voters, four cities). Plurality hands it to Lisbon because it has the most first-place votes — even though most voters rank Lisbon last. Borda, instant-runoff and Condorcet all point instead at Austin, the option nearly everyone puts second. When three methods disagree with plurality like that, it's a strong sign the plurality "winner" is really just the biggest minority.
If one option is genuinely everyone's favorite, every method names it and you can stop worrying about the rule. The interesting cases are the disagreements: a Condorcet winner that instant-runoff eliminates early, a Borda compromise that plurality never sees, or a cycle where no option beats all others head-to-head. Seeing all four at once tells you immediately which situation you're in.
Each method has its own detailed calculator with the full working: the Borda count calculator (points per position), the ranked-choice / instant-runoff calculator (round-by-round eliminations and transfers), and the Condorcet calculator (the full pairwise matrix). Want each person to submit their own ranking instead of pasting a list? Create a shared rankit poll — one link, no signup.
Which method is "correct"? None is universally best — a mathematical result (Arrow's theorem) proves no ranked method can satisfy every fairness criterion at once. That's exactly why comparing them is useful: agreement gives you confidence, disagreement tells you the choice of rule matters and deserves a conscious decision.
Do ballots have to rank every option? No. Partial ballots are fine; any options a voter leaves off are treated as tied at the bottom of that ballot for every method.
Is anything sent to a server? No. The entire comparison runs in your browser, so you can paste real ballots safely.