Elections: A Big Math Problem

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Ahead of Election Day tomorrow, millions of ballots are being cast in statewide, local and special elections. So, today, we're revisiting an episode asking: What would happen if the rules of our electoral system were changed? Producer Hannah Chinn reported on that very question, and today, with host Emily Kwong, they dive into three voting methods that are representative of alternative voting systems. They look at where these systems have been implemented, how they work and what they may mean for future elections.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.5	Hey, Shore Waivers, Regina Barber here.
0:17.5	With a look back at a timely episode my co-host Emily Kwong did with one of our
0:21.8	producers, Hannah Chin, because tomorrow, in many states across the U.S., it's an off-cycle election
0:28.4	day. So even though tomorrow's elections don't coincide with federal elections, many people will
0:34.8	still be heading to the polls to vote in state, local, and special elections.
0:39.3	And that got us thinking about all the possible ways for votes to be counted.
0:44.2	I don't want to give too much away, so I'll let Emily and Hand take it from here.
0:48.4	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:53.3	If you can vote and you're listening to this, maybe you voted early.
0:57.1	Maybe you mailed in your ballot.
0:58.7	Maybe you're waiting at a polling place listening to Shortwave right now.
1:02.3	Regardless, before you even marked a ballot, there was a choice already made for you.
1:07.2	And that's the choice of which voting system to use.
1:10.5	Hey, Hannah Chin. Hi, Emily.
1:12.4	Hannah, our producer today is going to tell us about some of those voting systems. Though, wait,
1:17.9	hold on, what is a voting system? Good question. So, for our purposes, a voting system is the set of
1:23.9	rules that you use to determine the winner of an election. And there are a lot of different rules that you can use.
1:30.4	So to illustrate this, I talked to a math professor at George Washington University in D.C.
1:35.7	His name is Dan Ullman, and for the past 20 years on and off, he's been teaching this class called math and politics.
	...

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