What is plurality voting?

• A. The candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of majority.
• B. The winner must secure a majority of votes to win.
• C. Seats are allocated proportionally to vote shares.
• D. A runoff is always held if no candidate reaches 50%.

Answer: (A)

In plurality voting the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, with no requirement to obtain a majority of the total. This means that even if no candidate surpasses 50%, the one with the highest count still wins. This matters most in races with many candidates, where the vote can be split and the leader ends up with less than half of all votes but still more than any other candidate. For example, if three candidates get 40%, 35%, and 25%, the first candidate wins because they have the most votes, even though they don’t have a majority. This is different from majority voting, where winning requires more than half of the votes, and from proportional representation, where seats or positions are allocated according to vote shares. Runoffs are not a defining feature of plurality voting; some systems use them, but the basic idea is simply to award the win to the candidate with the most votes.