General Vocabulary
- Social choice theory: the study of making decisions from collective input.
- Bullet vote: casting a vote for a single candidate.
- Ranked choice voting: the act of electing candidates using rankings instead of bullet votes.
- Linear ranking: an ordering of the candidates \(A>C>B\) by your preference for each. \(A>C\) means you prefer \(A\) to \(C\).
- Ballot: the information gathered from a voter, usually a ranking, but could be points as well.
- Preference profile: a collection of ballots from voters. Note, this is not the same as an election.
- Election: a choice of rules for converting a preference profile into an outcome.
- Ballot generator: a method for creating ballots.
- Bloc: a group of voters who share some similar voting patterns.
- CVR: cast vote record, i.e., the collection of ballots.
- BLT: a file type used to record CVRs in Scottish elections.