The Post-it RCV example (20 voters) — RCV-IRV: Purple wins the video's whiteboard count¶
Generated from bv2176_p8dp28_irv.yaml — do not edit by hand. Regenerate: python STARVote_LH_tabulation_engine/tools_adam/scripts/build_yaml_pages.py.
Method: RCV-IRV (Instant Runoff) · 1 seat · Expected winner: Purple
▶ Live on BetterVoting: vote · results ↗ (election p8dp28 · test BV2176).
Scenario¶
One of three races in the Post-it RCV example (BV2176, bvid p8dp28; BV-confirmed). The 20 ranked ballots from Equal Vote's video "Updated: How does RCV work? — With Post-its!" (https://youtu.be/Vte4nly_Neg), counted exactly as on the whiteboard. Round 1: Purple 7, Green 6, Blue 4, Pink 3 — Pink is eliminated (1 ballot goes to Green, 1 to Purple, and 1 bullet-vote Pink ballot exhausts). Round 2: Purple 8, Green 7, Blue 4 — Blue is eliminated (1 to Green, 1 to Purple, and the 2 Blue>Pink ballots exhaust, Pink being already gone). Final: Purple 9, Green 8 — Purple wins with 9 of the 17 still-active ballots. The sting the video builds to: Blue, the round-2 eliminee, beats Purple head-to-head 10-9 — a runoff RCV-IRV never held, but the STAR race on these voters' scores does (and Blue wins it).
Live results: https://bettervoting.com/p8dp28/results Companion races: bv2176_p8dp28_star.yaml, bv2176_p8dp28_ranked_robin.yaml. Overview page: bv2176_p8dp28_postit_rcv_example.md
Ballots¶
Each row is one voter's ranking, most-preferred first (N: prefix = N identical ballots).
Purple
Purple
Purple
Purple
Purple
Purple
Purple
Green>Blue>Pink
Green>Blue>Pink
Green>Blue>Pink
Green>Blue>Pink
Green>Blue>Pink
Green>Blue>Pink
Blue>Pink
Blue>Pink
Blue>Green>Pink
Blue>Purple
Pink>Green>Purple
Pink>Purple
Pink
What the engine says¶

Where the votes went. Band thickness is votes; a band leaving an eliminated candidate lands on whoever that ballot ranked next, or on inactive if it ranked nobody who was left.
The count, step by step — the rounds and how the winner is reached:
--- RCV / Instant-Runoff Voting (single winner) ---
The Post-it RCV example (20 voters) — RCV-IRV: Purple wins the video's whiteboard count
Tabulating 20 ballots (ranked ballots).
ROUND 1
Candidate Votes Status
----------- ------- --------
Purple 7 Hopeful
Green 6 Hopeful
Blue 4 Hopeful
Pink 3 Rejected
ROUND 2
Candidate Votes Status
----------- ------- --------
Purple 8 Hopeful
Green 7 Hopeful
Blue 4 Rejected
Pink 0 Rejected
Blank Votes 1 Rejected
FINAL RESULT
Candidate Votes Status
----------- ------- --------
Purple 9 Elected
Green 8 Rejected
Blue 0 Rejected
Pink 0 Rejected
Blank Votes 3 Rejected
Winner(s) — RCV / Instant-Runoff Voting (single winner)
Purple
Full audit — preference matrix, Condorcet, and score distribution¶
--- Smith Set (the generalized Condorcet winner) ---
The smallest group whose every member beats every candidate outside it —
the honest answer to "who is even in contention?".
Smith set (4 of 4): Green, Blue, Purple, Pink
Outside (0): —
More than one member ⇒ NO Condorcet winner: the top of the tournament is a
cycle, so the strongest "candidate" is a set, not a person. Which member of
the set should win is exactly what Minimax / Ranked Pairs / Schulze disagree
about — see 05_Ranked_Robin/01_Learn/cycle_resolution.md.
Note: the Copeland leaders (Green, Blue) are only part of the set — the
win–loss table's top block understates how wide the contention is.
RCV-IRV winner Purple is INSIDE the Smith set. ✓
Not guaranteed — RCV-IRV is not Smith-efficient — but it holds here.
More: 07_Concepts/topics/smith_set.md
Everything in one file: the _tabulated mirror (regenerated on every run; every analysis forced on).
Run it yourself:
python STARVote_LH_tabulation_engine/starvote_larry_hastings.py method_comparisons/postit_rcv_example/cases/bv2176_p8dp28_irv.yaml
See also¶
More cases in this set: bv2176_p8dp28_ranked_robin · bv2176_p8dp28_star · bv2177_v8r66y_approval · bv2177_v8r66y_plurality · bv2178_8kg698_irv · bv2178_8kg698_ranked_robin · bv2178_8kg698_star