Is ranking candidates in order of preference a more valid procedure than making up “scores” as in Range Voting?
Yes. Research in the field of psychology has shown that people are far more accurate, consistent and reliable when ranking choices (ordinal numbers) than when assigning scores (cardinal numbers). A person will consistently rank A over B if that is their preference, but may give them wildly different scores depending on circumstances (such as what other candidates are being considered, current mood, etc.) Most election methods experts, including Nobel Prize winner Kenneth Arrow, dismiss cardinal scoring methods, such as range voting, as invalid means of aggregating group preferences. Of course, there are other failings of Range Voting as well. In fact, one of the world’s foremost experts on voting methods, Prof.
