MAT 146

Carlos Zambrano Hand-In Assignment 1

Voting Theory
1. The Comic Con Club is holding its annual election for president. The three candidates are A,
B, and C. Twenty percent of the voters like A the most and B the least. Forty percent of the
voters like B the most and A the least. Of the remaining voters 225 prefer C to B and B to A,
and 675 prefer C to A and A to B. Write out the preference schedule for this election.

180 360 225 675 225+675 = 900

1st A B C C 900*.4= 360

2nd C C B A 900*.2=180

3rd D A A B Total voters: 1140

2. A preference schedule is shown below. In this election ties are not allowed to stand, and the
following tie-breaking rule is used: whenever there is a tie between two candidates, the tie is
broken in favor of the winner of a head-to-head comparison between the candidates. Use the
plurality method to find the complete ranking of the candidates.

202 160 153 145 125 110 108 102 55 A: 153+102+55=310

1st B C A D D C B A A
2nd D B C B A A C B D B: 202+108=310
3rd A A B A C D A D C C: 160+110=270
4th C D D C B B D C B
D: 145+125=270

A 153+125+110+102+55=545 vs B 202+160+145+108=615 Winner B=1 Point

A 202+153+145+125+102+55=782 vs C 160+110+108=378 Winner A= 1 Point
A 160+153+110+108+102+55=688 vs D 202+145+125=472 Winner A= 1 Point

B 202+145+108+102=557 vs C 160+153+125+110+55=603 Winner C= 1 Point

B 202+160+153+108+102=725 vs D 145+125+110+55=435 Winner B= 1 Point
D 202+145+125+102+55=629 vs C 160+153+110+108=531 Winner D=1 Point
Since the biggest tie is between A and B, head to head favors B as in going head to
head with A, B has majority of the votes, 615 votes.
MAT 146
Carlos Zambrano Hand-In Assignment 1
Voting Theory

3. An election was held using the following variation of the Borda count method: 7 points for
first place, 4 points for second, 3 points for third, 2 points for fourth, and 1 point for fifth.
There were five candidates (A, B, C, D, and E) and 30 voters. When the points were tallied,
A had 84 points, B had 65 points, C had 123 points, and D had 107 points. Find out how
many points E had and give the ranking of the candidates.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Borda points

A 7 4 3 2 1 84

B 7 4 3 2 1 65

C 7 4 3 2 1 123

D 7 4 3 2 1 107

E 7 4 3 2 1 131

Total 30 *7=210 30*4=120 30*3=90 30*2=60 30*1=30 510

Adding the total points for the different options allows to find the total of points, then
subtracting the known values from the total of points gives the number of points for E which
equals to 131 Borda points.

4. Below you are given a preference schedule for an election with five candidates. The number
of voters was very large, so the columns of the preference schedule give the percent of voters
rather than the number of voters. Use the plurality with elimination method to find the
complete ranking of the candidates.
Percent of Voters 25 21 15 12 10 9 8
1st C E B A C C C
2nd E D D D D B E
3 rd D B E B E A D
4th A A C E A E B
th
5 B C A C B D A

C is the winner as it possesses 52% of the votes it has majority over the others
MAT 146
Carlos Zambrano Hand-In Assignment 1
Voting Theory
5. Below you are given a preference schedule for an election with five candidates. Find the
complete ranking of candidates using the method of pairwise comparisons.

7 6 5 5 5 5 4 2 1
1st D C A C D E B A A
2nd B A B A C A E B C
3rd A E E B A D C D E
4th C B C D E B D E B
5th E D D E B C A C D
A 6+5+5+5+5+2+1=29 vs B7+4=11 winner is A + 1 point
A7+5+5+2+1=20 vs C6+5+5+4=20 Tie ½ point for both
A6+5+5+5+2+1=24 vs D 7+5+4=16 Winner A +1 point A:3 ½
A7+6+5+5+5+2+1=31 vs E5+4=9 winner is A +1 point B:3
B7+5+5+4+2=23 vs C6+5+5+1=17 Winner is B + 1 point C:2 ½ Winner A with 3 ½ points
B6+5+5+4+2=22 vs D7+5+5+1=18 winner is B +1 point D: 0
B7+5+5+4+2=23 vs E6+5+5+1=17 winner is B +1 point E:0
C6+5+5+4+1=21 vs D7+5+5+2=19 winner is C plus 1 point
C7+6+5+5+1=24 vs E5+5+4+2=16 winner is C plus 1 point
6. An election with six candidates is decided using the method of pairwise comparisons. If A
loses four pairwise comparisons, B and C both lose three, D loses one and ties one, and E
loses two and ties one. Find the winner of the election and the complete ranking using the
method of pairwise comparisons.

The winner is D with 3 ½ points

MAT 146
Carlos Zambrano Hand-In Assignment 1
Voting Theory
7. Use the given preference schedule to illustrate why the Borda count violates the
Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives criterion. Your answer should include an
explanation supported by the math.

14 10 8 4 1
1st A C D B C
2nd B B C D D
3rd C D B C B
4th D A A A A

A 14*4=56 10*1=10 8*1=8 4*1=4 1*1=1 79

B 14*3=42 10*3=30 8*2=16 4*4=16 2*1=2 106
C 14*2=28 10*4=40 8*3=24 4*2=8 4*1=4 104
D 14*1=14 10*2=20 8*4=32 4*3=12 3*1=3 81

Winner is B and after removing A the winner is still B

It violates the Independence of irrelevant alternatives because when removing A for being the
last on votes, B is still the winner as it receives A’s votes and for a total of 120 votes when
removing A