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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 2398392" data-attributes="member: 87">Interesting thread - oh well, back to writing the program that counts the votes.BTW, voting will work a different way this year than the prior 2 years. I don't know the fancy terminology for it, but basically it will be a run off system.For each category you have one less ballots as there are candidates. You cast your choice for the winner on the first ballot.  If you wish, you cast your second choice for a winner on the second ballot, third choice for a winner on the third and so on.  If you don't feel a product deserves to win, don't vote for it at all.When the computer counts ballots, it will be looking for a clear majority (over 50%) among ballots cast before declaring a win.  On the first round it only considers the first round ballots.  If there is no winner then the product that received the fewest votes is dropped out of the race, and the next round begins.  First round ballots are counted in this round only if the candidate is still in the running, otherwise the second round ballot is used. If there still isn't a winner a third round is held.Example - Product A, B, C, and D are up.  You like products A and B but feel B is the best. You select B for your first ballot and A for your second. On the first round product D is eliminated.  Since you picked B for your first round and it's still in the running, on the second round the computer uses your first round ballot.  Unfortunately B is dropped in the second round, leaving a runoff between A and C.  On the third round your "second round" ballot is counted and helps push A over the top for the win.In this system there's nothing to gain by trying to give a product a "low rating" as in years past, but if you want to rank the products you can. Note that in this system the worst you can do to a product you don't like is simply abstain casting a ballot.  If you cast only a single ballot and your candidate is elminated the computer simply doesn't count any empty ballots.(If I've paraphrased this system wrong Denise, let me know immediately - as the guy writing the code I need to concise understand how it is to work or else I can't get the computer to execute as expected).EDIT: The reason there is one less ballot then there are candidates is because there must be at least 2 candidates in each round.  With 5 candidates there would be 5 candidates in the first round, 4 in the second, 3 in the third and 2 in the fourth. If there isn't a clear majority after the 4th round, there is a glitch in the software or it's a perfect tie.  That would be interesting to see, but unlikely.</blockquote>

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