Second ballot system

Neesha Dadra

What is a second ballot

system?

Second ballot system is an electoral system in which the

voters choose between the two candidates with the greatest
number of votes in an earlier election that fails to produce a
majority for any one candidate.
Thetwo-round system also known as a second ballot is avoting
systemused to elect a single winner where the voter casts a
single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no
candidate receives the required number of votes (usually an
absolute majority or 40-45% with a winning margin of 5-15%),
then those candidates having less than a certain proportion of
the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most
votes, are eliminated, and a second round of voting occurs.
Countries such as France, India, Indonesia, Poland, Czech
republic, Guatemala, Ghana and etc use the second ballot
system.

How it works?
In both rounds of an election conducted using runoff voting,
the voter simply marks an "X" beside his/her favourite
candidate. If no candidate has an absolute majority of votes
(i.e. more than half) in the first round, then the two candidates
with the most votes proceed to a second round, from which all
others are excluded.
In the second round, because there are only two candidates,
one candidate will achieve an absolute majority. In the second
round each voter is entirely free to change the candidate he
votes for, even if his preferred candidate has not yet been
eliminated but he has merely changed his mind.

Example of the second ballot

system
If Bob, Sally, Jane and Billy stood in elections
and the votes looked something like this
bob:25 votes
Sally: 12
Jane: 8
Bill: 32
There would be another ballot vote between
the two dominant people/party who would
be Bob and Bill.

Advantages of second ballot system

It allows voters to have a second chance
to vote for their chosen candidate, or
even to change their minds between the
first and the second rounds.
It is slightly more representative than
First Past the Post (FPTP) and can be of
benefit to smaller parties.
Second-round bartering encourages
parties to remain friendly with each other
It is easy for voters to understand and is
simple to count.

Disadvantages of second ballot

system
It is less sophisticated than the Alternative Vote
(AV)
It is highly disproportional and favours large
parties.
The voting process is drawn out over a period of
two or three weeks and possibly longer.
the first-round encourages a certain amount of
tactical voting because of risk of the compromise
choice not reaching second-round.
If no compromise candidate reaches the secondround, it can lead to surprising outcome: thats
like having Nigel Farrage as PM if we had the
TRS!