Gov/en/Portal:Voting/Condorcet-History: Difference between revisions

{{KidsIntro|Some people say that voting by ranking your choices (called Condorcet voting) is too complicated for real life. But real groups have used it for many years. This page tells the true story with numbers: how many people voted this way in the communities that build Wikipedia and the Debian computer system, what they decided, and how often Swiss citizens say yes when they vote on an idea proposed by other citizens. Every number points to its source, so you can check it yourself.}}

{{ExpertIntro|Documented history and results of Condorcet-style voting in large online communities, with every figure pointing to a verifiable source. Wikimedia used the Schulze (Condorcet) method for its Board of Trustees elections of 2008, 2009 and 2011 (3,019 valid ballots in 2008, 2,940 in 2009), then moved to support ratios (2013 to 2017) and to the single transferable vote (2021, 6,873 votes). In the documented record, Condorcet voting at Wikimedia served to elect people; the rare movement-wide votes on subjects used yes or no ballots (licensing update 2009: 17,462 certified votes, adopted; Movement Charter ratification 2024: 2,446 voters, not adopted), and no exhaustive count of Condorcet-based decisions exists, which this page says plainly instead of inventing one. Debian provides the documented example of Condorcet decisions on subjects: its public vote archive lists 74 votes from 1999 to 2026, 29 annual leader elections and 45 votes on subjects, counted with a Schulze-equivalent rule since 2003 and fully recomputable. As a comparison point from direct democracy, Swiss Federal Chancellery data counts 26 popular initiatives accepted out of 235 put to a national vote since the instrument was introduced in 1891, about one in ten. Participation and critiques are covered with numbers first, then with verified research.}}