Joel wrote:
I'm not sure about votes like:
vote: 37 37 37 37 37
and votes like:
vote: 50 50 83 83 75
Does the IRV voting allows listing the same candidate several times? Will this skew the resuls?
Yes, and no, respectively. Only the top vote is counted, and if that candidate is eliminated, all of the votes for the eliminated candidate can no longer be counted. Essentially, that person is forefitting some of their choices.
Also:
vote: 0 75 75 38 1
Does not look correct. Don't we number candidates from 1?
Yes, but since zero is a one time fluke it cannot possibly win. It will be eliminated toward the very beginning of the counting and will really just delay the person's real votes from counting. Can't really hurt the final result at all.
OTOH, the attached Python script I've just wrote by looking at http://www.electionmethods.org/IRVexample.htm produces the same results: '67' is the winner and '75' is the runner-up.
Thanks for taking the time to double check my program's results. Glad to see they came out the same :) -Jason