You do know, right, that even if your No Award vote is eliminated, it comes back for the "No Award Showdown test" at the end of the process:
After a tentative winner is determined by normal Instant Runoff Voting, you compare the number of ballots that voted No Award above the Tentative Winner (or didn't list the TW) versus those ballots that listed the Tentative Winner above No Award (or didn't list NA). Ballots that list neither the TW nor NA don't count for this test. If by some chance No Award comes out on top in this test (it's never actually happened), No Award wins.
The important thing here is that your votes below No Award are saying, "I don't really want this candidate to win at all, but if it must win, I prefer it over the others I've ranked lower." Your vote ends up showing a preference between the candidates you don't like that much while still having a technical possibility of knocking it off completely when it comes to the No Award Showdown.
This Showdown is not part of normal Instant Runoff Voting. It's Section 6.5 of the WSFS Constitution (http://www.wsfs.org/bm/const-2013.htm#article6).
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-14 04:34 am (UTC)After a tentative winner is determined by normal Instant Runoff Voting, you compare the number of ballots that voted No Award above the Tentative Winner (or didn't list the TW) versus those ballots that listed the Tentative Winner above No Award (or didn't list NA). Ballots that list neither the TW nor NA don't count for this test. If by some chance No Award comes out on top in this test (it's never actually happened), No Award wins.
The important thing here is that your votes below No Award are saying, "I don't really want this candidate to win at all, but if it must win, I prefer it over the others I've ranked lower." Your vote ends up showing a preference between the candidates you don't like that much while still having a technical possibility of knocking it off completely when it comes to the No Award Showdown.
This Showdown is not part of normal Instant Runoff Voting. It's Section 6.5 of the WSFS Constitution (http://www.wsfs.org/bm/const-2013.htm#article6).