Oscar Votes 123: 2013

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Vote Like Brad & Angelina: Rank Best Picture Choices

Please check out a nifty Facebook poll by Opavote where you can rank the Oscar-nominated pictures!

It's Oscar season again. The choice voting system of proportional representation was used to nominate nearly all categories, and now the ranked choice voting "instant runoff" system for one-winner elections is being used to select Best Picture. Both ranked choice systems are preferential voting systems widely used in governmental elections. Choice voting is used by every voter in at least one of their elections in Australia, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and Scotland and in the American cities of Cambridge (MA) and Minneapolis (MN). Instant runoff voting is used to elect mayors in a growing number of American cities, including Portland (ME), St. Paul (MN), Minneapolis (MN), Oakland (CA) and San Francisco (CA).

In the coming weeks, members of Academy of Motion Pictures -- from stars like Brad Pitt an Angelina Jolie to the essential behind-the-camera members who make movies possible -- will rank the nine nominees for Best picture in order of choice. They can ran all nine movies, knowing that ranking a second choice won't hurt their first choice, but might help defeat their last choice.The winner will be the movie that has enough first choices to be at or near the top at the start of the count, and has broad support to pick up second and lower choices from backers of less-supported movies as they are eliminated in the count.

We've written a lot about how the system works in Oscar voting on this blog. To get a chance to weigh in yourself, check out the new Facebook poll by Opavote where you can rank the Oscar-nominated pictures!