Insincere voting

Inpolitical science,social choice,andgame theory,insincere votingis the practice of casting avotethat provides more support to a worse outcome than a better one, i.e. one that involves voterslyingabout whether they prefer candidate A or B.^[1]It is sometimes calledmisaligned,deceptive,ordishonest voting.For example, in afirst-past-the-post election,a sincere voter would support the candidate they think is best, whereas an insincere voter may instead support a different candidate. The design of manyvoting rulescreatesincentives for dishonestyamong voters.^[2]

First-preferencemethods likefirst-past-the-postandranked-choice runoff voting (RCV)have a strong tendency to force voters into supporting thelesser of two evils,i.e. lying about who their favorite candidate is. If a voter's most preferred candidate is unlikely to win the election, the voter is instead incentivized to support the "least bad" of the candidates they consider viable.

By contrast, systems that satisfyindependence of irrelevant alternatives(such asscore,approval,andhighest medians) tend to exhibit very low rates of insincere voting, and can even satisfy thesincere favorite criterion(which means voters are never forced to choose between the lesser of two evils).

References

^Farquharson, Robin (1969).Theory of Voting.Blackwell (Yale U.P. in the U.S.).ISBN 978-0-631-12460-3.
^Wolitzky, Alexander (2009). "Fully sincere voting".Games and Economic Behavior.67(2): 720–735.doi:10.1016/j.geb.2009.01.001.

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[1] Farquharson, Robin (1969).Theory of Voting.Blackwell (Yale U.P. in the U.S.).ISBN 978-0-631-12460-3.

[2] Wolitzky, Alexander (2009). "Fully sincere voting".Games and Economic Behavior.67(2): 720–735.doi:10.1016/j.geb.2009.01.001.

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Insincere voting

See also

References