Real elections

If you have used wevotehere.org to run an interesting survey and would like to share it with the world, email it to Professor Bray (hubertlewisbray@gmail.com) with the subject line “survey to share with WVH” exactly. Shared elections are anonymized in the same way as those below. Every so often, we update our list of elections and may add yours.

This web page was created in 2016 and extensively remodeled in November 2026. From 2016 to 2026, the servers for wevotehere.org collected ballot spreadsheets, processed them, and made results spreadsheets available for users to download. The servers stored the data collected as a consequence.

After 10 years of collecting data, we realized that we had an educational resource that could nurture the culture of democracy around the world. Each survey is a real-world example of how to conduct a preferential ballot election. Many of the surveys show different vote counting methods picking different winners from the same ballots. Anyone can see how preferential ballot elections work in practice, compare Ranked Pairs with other vote counting methods on the same ballots, and study the election result visuals on this web page. After seeing these example elections, some visitors will no doubt ask, “Why don’t we use preferential ballot elections like these in all our elections?”

The original site did not tell users that their files would be shared, so we have tried hard to be fair to them. None of the original uploaded files are available here. Every downloadable file was recreated from the original with only the election information in it: no names, dates, or other entries not essential to the election. We also removed elections on controversial or potentially embarrassing topics, elections whose candidates were people, elections with very few voters, elections with incomplete data, and others at our discretion.

If you uploaded an election listed here and want it removed, send Professor Bray (hubertlewisbray@gmail.com) information that proves you were the original survey author and a request that the survey be taken down.

As of November 2026, the servers for this web page do not collect any election data whatsoever. The old code used PHP, which runs on the web page’s servers. The new code uses JavaScript, which runs on the user’s computer. Hence our servers never see your files and have no way to store them. This also has the advantage that all of our JavaScript code for determining the winners of elections is downloaded by every user for every use, allowing the world to check it for accuracy and honesty.

The choices are numbered in the order Ranked Pairs ranked them, winner first. Between every two choices there is a ✔︎ if the higher one beat the lower one head to head (more voters ranked it higher) and a ✖︎ if it lost. Beside each name is its row of the margin of victory matrix, which shows by how many votes it beat ( blue) or lost to ( red) each numbered choice. A “0” is an exact tie, which is won by whichever choice the tie-breaking vote puts ahead. On the far right are the vote counting methods that would elect that choice.

Every part of the picture explains itself: hold the mouse pointer over any ✔︎ or ✖︎, any square of the matrix, or any method’s name (on a phone or tablet, tap it), and a note appears saying exactly what it means, for example which two choices it compares and by how many votes one beat the other.

A Condorcet winner beats every other choice head to head. It has a top line of ✔︎ and a top row with no red.