The election mess in NY is entirely the NYC board of election's fault

[dsc]

First, let's clear up some elements about what ranked choice voting is and what instant run off (aka plurality with elimination) is. Ranked choice voting is exactly what it sounds like, it is where a voter is given a ballot with n candidates and the voter ranks some number of candidates (r) which can be equal to or less than n from 1st to rth place. In this specific case, there were 22 candidates and voters ranked up to five of them. Instant run off, aka plurality with elimination, is how those ballots will be counted. There are many ways such votes can be counted, of which instant run off is one, and other than first past the post, the most popular counting method used. In this method, the first place votes of all voters are tabulated, if one candidate has a majority of such votes, the election is over, if not the candidate or candidates with the least number of such votes is eliminated and his or her votes are reallocated to those voters 2nd choice if such a choice exists. The votes are counted again, if one candidate has a majority, he or she wins outright, if not, the process is repeated with the lowest eliminated and those votes given to the highest remaining choice on those ballots.

So how is this done? Well if there is a low enough number of ballots then the process works like this. Ballots are put into piles with ballots that are marked the same way, all the ABCDE in one pile, the ABCDF in a 2nd pile etc. The number of ballots in each pile is tallied and the numbers are put on a sheet. Then the first place votes are counted. Last place candidate is eliminated, the piles where he or she was first place are reallocated, count is redone, process is repeated until either one candidate gets a majority or there are two candidates remaining. Is this process tedious, yes. Is it cold fusion, no. Computers are routinely programmed to perform tedious tasks and when there are too many ballots that is what happens. If you want it done faster, you get faster and or more computers. Again, this is routinely done.

So what happened here. Some dunderheads left the sample ballots in the computers when the ballots were counted. They have since been taken out, and the results apparently were in the same order and at the same percentages but not the same numbers. This has nothing at all to do with how people filled out their ballots nor how those ballots got counted (unless NYC was doing hand counts prior to this which I find beyond hard to believe).

Again, this isn't hard, or unusual. Other places with fairly substantial numbers of people, San Francisco for example, use this method of counting votes. It is easy to do.

The problem isn't the voters, it isn't the computers being used, it is the very incompetent BOE.

[PuppyBismark]

1. A simple computer algorithm would work in hours or less

Just scan in the ballots and apply a valid algorithm. Even with millions of ballots a state of the art computer would have an answer in much less than a day.

Yes it is incompetence on the part of the BOE.