About Hugo Voting
Voting for the Hugo Awards was conducted on a preferential (instant runoff) system. When you vote, you don’t vote for just one of the choices, you rank the offerings in each category in your order of preference. You aren’t required to rank all of them, but if you want to help influence the outcome, it’s to your advantage to do so.
Although the counting is complicated, a basic understanding of it may help you in ranking your choices. If we have four items we’re voting on: A, B, C, and D, we separate the ballots into four stacks. Stack 1 has all those ballots that list A as their first choice, stack 2 has those that have listed B as their first choice etc. We count how many are in each stack. If one of the choices has received the majority (half of the first-choice votes cast plus at least one more) of votes, then that item is the winner. If, as often happens in elections with two or more candidates, no item choice has a clear majority, then we take up the stack that has the fewest ballots. The fewest people have chosen this item as their top choice. Then we redistribute those ballots based on the second choices listed on those ballots as if they were the first choice. EG, say Stack Four, those who chose D as their first choice had the least ballots. We’d take those ballots and put them into Stacks 1, 2, or 3, depending on which was ranked as second choice. Now we have only three piles. This goes on until there is a winner, i.e., someone with a clear majority.
You can read more about this balloting system on Wikipedia. The results of the 2004 Hugo voting process.
For more information on the Hugo Awards, look at the WSFS Constitution, AwardWeb, Science Fiction Awards Watch, Locus Magazine’s Index to Science Fiction Awards, or The Hugo Awards.
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