Glossary — RCV-IRV (and ranked-ballot terms)¶
Method-specific terms for RCV-IRV and the ranked-ballot family. Shared, cross-method vocabulary (monotonicity, summability, the Equal Vote criterion…) lives in the main glossary.
- RCV (Ranked-Choice Voting) — a ranked (ordinal) ballot type (rank 1st, 2nd, 3rd…): conveys order, not degree of support — the contrast with a scored (cardinal) ballot. A family, not one method; in US usage it's loosely used to mean IRV. → Tips — Terminology: RCV vs IRV vs RCV-IRV (and friends); scored vs ranked Scores vs. Ranks — Don't Confuse Ranks and Ratings
- IRV (Instant-Runoff Voting) — one tabulation of a ranked ballot: eliminate the lowest first-choice, transfer, repeat until a majority. The single-winner method usually meant by "RCV."
- RCV-IRV — this repo's disambiguating label for "the RCV that is IRV" (vs. the ballot family or the other ranked tabulations).
- ballot vs tabulation — the ballot is what the voter marks; the tabulation is how it's counted. "RCV" names a ballot; "IRV" names a tabulation.
- Exhausted ballot — an IRV-specific term: a ballot set aside mid-count because all its ranked candidates were eliminated (Ranked Robin reads every rank, so it doesn't exhaust). → "Exhausted Ballots" — What FairVote's Word Actually Hides
- Center squeeze — a broadly-liked moderate eliminated early for lacking first-choice support; an IRV failure STAR and Ranked Robin avoid. → Center Squeeze
- STV (Single Transferable Vote) — the proportional, multi-winner tabulation of ranked ballots (the proportional cousin of IRV, not IRV itself).
- Hare — the ranked-transfer idea; single-winner = IRV, multi-winner = STV.
The shared criteria RCV-IRV fails or passes — monotonicity, summability (and its operational cost, central tabulation), the Equal Vote criterion, later-no-harm — are in the main glossary (stated fairly, with caveats).