Now, to accentuate the late round action, a few circular variations of our San Francisco 2011 mayoral election ranked choice voting visualizations.
In these charts, ranked choice ballot trajectories radiate from the center, first round inside to last round out. Angular width represents the fraction of the overall vote, like a pie graph. An additional 1,900 votes have straggled in since we created the originals, causing Hall and Alioto-Pier’s exits to flip-flop and the color scheme to change slightly.
First, let’s view all ballots with a valid #1 choice other than mayor-elect Ed Lee or runner-up John Avalos, grouped by initial preference:
Ranked vote trajectories, non-Lee/Avalos first choice ballots, grouped by initial preference.
Next, the same non-Lee/Avalos first choice ballots, grouped by final result:
Ranked vote trajectories, non-Lee/Avalos first choice ballots, grouped by final result.
Finally, the 27% of all ballots cast, free of Lee or Avalos in any spot, which became exhausted:
Ranked vote trajectories, exhausted ballots.
Tom Petty was right! In a 16-candidate election, the wasting is the hardest part.
And that’s all I have to say about that.