It is highly atypical to have three Presidential Candidates. In fact, no current TCU member has had the opportunity to vote in a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Presidential Election with three candidates.
So, this situation presents a departure from the norm and thus, a seeming departure from precedent. With the TCU Presidential election quickly approaching, the Elections Commission (ECOM) wanted to take time to explain how this year's voting system works.
The TCU Constitution (Article VI.B.1.4) states, The TCU presidential election shall use a rank voting system, wherein each member of the TCU may rank the candidates numerically in the order of their preference."
In the past, with a two-candidate race, our choice was simplified. We could vote for Candidate A, Candidate B or we could abstain from voting. In that there were two choices, voting was inherently preferential or ranked. A voter could rank Candidate A over Candidate B, Candidate B over Candidate A, or rank an abstention (implying that neither candidate was electable) higher than both candidates.
But this situation is more complex
