Not at all. We don't need to decide preferential vs. runoff at this point. I just think your wording may make it appear that there will be no runoffs or preferential balloting or any other winnowing-down-of-the-options system. I read it and think that if no choice gets 50%, the whole question fails.

Again, I would re-word if we are re-voting. I can see that. Right now it is a poll of what one was thinking at the time.

Do we want to do a re-vote? I am really unclear.

I'm afraid now we need a new vote that includes everyone, even the people who voted for supermajority.

I am actually starting to agree (especially since I can't remember how I voted in the first place, or what I thought at the time)

Possibly a vote asking for a clarification of the definition of majority is, with an explicit statement that ties and multiple choices will decided later.

Was supermajority fairly defeated?

Ugh. I hate bringing it up, but if it's between A & B or between A' & B, you're not going to ge the same number of votes for B both times.

Horse is out of the barn on this one, and I'm considering clawing my own eyes out instead of hitting "Post message".

It will need to be a more complex thing to clear this up.

I don't see much point in polling just to see what people thought at the time they voted - certain things weren't really on the table then, like various preferential set-ups, and some folks have indicated that they've changed their minds. I'd say scrap that one question and repoll on this issue. Perhaps something like this:

What is your preference for determining outcomes when more than two options appear on the ballot?

A) One option must receive a majority (50% + 1) of votes cast. If no option receives a majority, no action will result.

B) One option must receive a majority (50% + 1) of votes cast. If no option receives a majority, a run-off between the top two finishers will occur.

C) Preferential voting should be implemented so that one option receives the required majority. [Link to brief explanation, e.g. John's chart]

D) Option receiving the most votes wins, regardless of whether they constitute a majority as defined above.

I, too, about about to claw my eyes out, but brenda, as much as I think that is great, if we have more than 2 choices how are we going to determine the winner? With a preferential ballot?

edited to add that I was trying for levity. not sure if that got across.

how are we going to determine the winner? With a preferential ballot?

Hee! I was thinking the same thing...

This time? I'd say go to immediate runoff. Just to not get into the preferential argument prematurely. Clunkier, but won't require us to debate it all night.

(FTR, I have no objection to pref voting, but the very question is dragging us through the dirt here, and I think we need to get beyond it one way or another.)

I would prefer just deciding between two options for now.

Here's how I would reword (with thanks to John and Wolfram), with what I hope are balanced clarifications at the bottom so people know what they're voting for:

Supermajority has been defeated, but it turns out we didn't all mean the same thing when we voted for "simple majority". What do you think a "simple majority" means and how would you like it applied to determine future votes?

Choice 1: An option which receives more than 50% of the vote wins.

Choice 2: Whichever option has the most votes wins.

Choice 1 means that in the rare cases where a ballot question has more than two choices, there will need to be runoff ballots, or you will have to vote preferentially, or we will decide that the vote fails if no choice initially gets 50%. We will decide this either vote by vote, or else there will be another vote where this gets decided for all future ballots.

Choice 2 means that a choice could win even though it received only a small percentage of the total votes cast. For example, if there are five choices that receive 22%, 21%, 20%, 19%, 18%, the choice that recived 22% would win with no further balloting.