What is score voting?

Score voting (sometimes called range voting) is a single-winner voting system where voters rate candidates on a scale. The candidate with the highest rating wins. For comparison, consider ratings systems from site like: Internet Movie Database, Amazon, Yelp, and Hot or Not. Variations of score voting can use a score-style ballot to elect multiple candidates simultaneously.

Technical notes: Simplified forms of score voting automatically give skipped candidates the lowest possible score for the ballot they were skipped. Other forms have those ballots not affect the candidate’s rating at all. Those forms not affecting the candidates rating frequently make use of quotas. Quotas demand a minimum proportion of voters rate that candidate in some way before that candidate is eligible to win.