Candidate Moderation under Instant Runoff and Condorcet Voting: Evidence from the Cooperative Election Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: McCune, David, Jones, Matthew I., Schultz, Andy, Graham-Squire, Adam, Volic, Ismar, See, Belle, Xiao, Karen, Mukundan, Malavika
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author McCune, David
Jones, Matthew I.
Schultz, Andy
Graham-Squire, Adam
Volic, Ismar
See, Belle
Xiao, Karen
Mukundan, Malavika
author_facet McCune, David
Jones, Matthew I.
Schultz, Andy
Graham-Squire, Adam
Volic, Ismar
See, Belle
Xiao, Karen
Mukundan, Malavika
contents This article extends the analysis of Atkinson, Foley, and Ganz in "Beyond the Spoiler Effect: Can Ranked-Choice Voting Solve the Problem of Political Polarization?". Their work uses a one-dimensional spatial model based on survey data from the Cooperative Election Survey (CES) to examine how instant-runoff voting (IRV) and Condorcet methods promote candidate moderation. Their model assumes an idealized electoral environment in which all voters possess complete information regarding candidates' ideological positions, all voters provide complete preference rankings, etc. Under these assumptions, their results indicate that Condorcet methods tend to yield winners who are substantially more moderate than those produced by IRV. We construct new models based on CES data which take into account more realistic voter behavior, such as the presence of partial ballots. Our general finding is that under more realistic models the differences between Condorcet methods and IRV largely disappear, implying that in real-world settings the moderating effect of Condorcet methods may not be nearly as strong as what is suggested by more theoretical models.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_03619
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Candidate Moderation under Instant Runoff and Condorcet Voting: Evidence from the Cooperative Election Study
McCune, David
Jones, Matthew I.
Schultz, Andy
Graham-Squire, Adam
Volic, Ismar
See, Belle
Xiao, Karen
Mukundan, Malavika
General Economics
Economics
This article extends the analysis of Atkinson, Foley, and Ganz in "Beyond the Spoiler Effect: Can Ranked-Choice Voting Solve the Problem of Political Polarization?". Their work uses a one-dimensional spatial model based on survey data from the Cooperative Election Survey (CES) to examine how instant-runoff voting (IRV) and Condorcet methods promote candidate moderation. Their model assumes an idealized electoral environment in which all voters possess complete information regarding candidates' ideological positions, all voters provide complete preference rankings, etc. Under these assumptions, their results indicate that Condorcet methods tend to yield winners who are substantially more moderate than those produced by IRV. We construct new models based on CES data which take into account more realistic voter behavior, such as the presence of partial ballots. Our general finding is that under more realistic models the differences between Condorcet methods and IRV largely disappear, implying that in real-world settings the moderating effect of Condorcet methods may not be nearly as strong as what is suggested by more theoretical models.
title Candidate Moderation under Instant Runoff and Condorcet Voting: Evidence from the Cooperative Election Study
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.03619