Ranked Pairs - Procedure

Procedure

The RP procedure is as follows:

1. Tally the vote count comparing each pair of candidates, and determine the winner of each pair (provided there is not a tie)
2. Sort (rank) each pair, by the largest strength of victory first to smallest last.
3. "Lock in" each pair, starting with the one with the largest number of winning votes, and add one in turn to a graph as long as they do not create a cycle (which would create an ambiguity). The completed graph shows the winner.

RP can also be used to create a sorted list of preferred candidates. To create a sorted list, repeatedly use RP to select a winner, remove that winner from the list of candidates, and repeat (to find the next runner up, and so forth).