ONE THING / THE SAME BALLOTS CAN ANSWER DIFFERENT QUESTIONS

Five rules. Example names only.

Not an official City of El Segundo page. Example data. Alder, Birch, Cedar, Circle, and Square are not candidates or parties. This page does not recommend a method. Los Angeles County's ballot-marking page, read the same day, does not say voters rank names.

What each rule counts

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says of plurality rule, informally, that alternatives are socially ranked in the order of how many individuals most prefer each of them. Later it says: Under plurality rule, each voter votes for only one alternative and the alternative with the largest number of votes wins. fact

The MIT Election Lab says instant-runoff voting is a type of voting method in single-winner elections where voters rank candidates and one winner is chosen. It continues: ballots are counted for the highest-ranked choice still in the race; a candidate wins with more than 50% of first-choice votes; otherwise the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and those ballots move to the next rank until one candidate receives over 50% of the votes. The explainer was last updated June 24, 2026. fact

The National Conference of State Legislatures, in a brief updated March 23, 2026, says: Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates by preference rather than casting a ballot for a single candidate. Its California row says state law Allows the county of Santa Clara to use ranked choice voting. That sentence is about Santa Clara, not Los Angeles County. NCSL also says: Our organization does not run elections and cannot provide legal advice. fact

The Secretary of State says the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. All candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election move on, regardless of party preference. fact

On approval voting, the Stanford Encyclopedia says each person can approve of as many or as few alternatives as he or she wishes and that the alternative with the most votes wins. fact

For more than one seat, the MIT page calls single transferable vote the multi-winner election system and a close cousin of instant runoff. NCSL says: Cambridge, Mass. and Minneapolis, Minn., use ranked choice voting in multimember districts. The seat picture below is a simpler split of example ballots. It is not that system, and it is not California law. fact

Social Choice Theory, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, substantive revision October 14, 2022. Instant runoff voting, MIT Election Data and Science Lab, updated June 24, 2026. Ranked Choice Voting, NCSL, updated March 23, 2026. Primary Elections in California, Secretary of State. All read November 3, 2026. One Stanford sentence contains an em dash; it is not copied here.

Try the example

Nine example ballots. Change a first choice or an approval and the picture changes. Ranks in the ranked tab follow a fixed order for each first choice: Alder then Birch then Cedar; Birch then Cedar then Alder; Cedar then Birch then Alder. A tie stops. This page does not invent a tie-break.

example data

Example data, printed so it can be read without JavaScript. Four ballots list Alder first, three list Birch first, two list Cedar first.

The printed example, worked once
Rule	What the example does
Plurality	Alder 4, Birch 3, Cedar 2. Alder has the most. Four of nine is not more than half.
Ranked	Cedar has 2 and is set aside. Those two ballots list Birch next. Birch then has 5, Alder 4. Five of nine is over half.
Top two	Alder (Circle) and Birch (Circle) are the top two. Cedar (Square) is not. Both advancers share an example party label.
Approval	The four Alder ballots approve only Alder. The three Birch ballots approve Birch and Cedar. The two Cedar ballots approve only Cedar. Totals: Alder 4, Birch 3, Cedar 5.
Two seats	A separate picture starts at 6 Circle and 4 Square. Example quota is 10 divided by 2, which is 5. Circle has one full quota. Square has the larger remainder and takes the other seat. One each.

The two-seat rule used in the picture: divide example ballots by 2. Each full quota is a seat. One leftover seat goes to the larger remainder. A matching remainder leaves the seat unfilled. Example arithmetic, not a statute.

Different winners in this example are a property of the rules and these made-up marks. They are not evidence about any real contest. Drafted by Grok 4.7 on November 3, 2026.

Next: districts, without a roster.