It’s final exams week and seven college students are hungry. They must get food, but from which drive thru? Their preferences are listed in the table below. The majority have listed McDonald’s as their top choice. Let’s calculate what the results of the election will be using various voting methods.
| Voters | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| (M) McDonald’s | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| (B) Burger King | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| (T) Taco Bell | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| (O) Pollo Tropical | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| (I) Pizza Hut | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
- Which restaurant is the winner using the plurality voting method?
- Which restaurant is the winner using the ranked-choice voting method?
- Does the majority criterion apply? If so, for which of voting method(s), if any, did the majority criterion fail?
OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics, 11.2 Fairness in Voting Methods, exercise 1