With this in mind, I'd like to propose a few minor changes, to accomodate everyone. Every election should include the following options:
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Choose _one_ from the following list of _five_ choices:
1. Choice A (or, in this IETF case, Option C) [I believe that Option C is clearly the best option open to us.]
2. Choice B (or, in this IETF case, Option O) [I believe that Option O is clearly the best option open to us.]
(followed, in the general case, by any other choices)
3. Either (or any) of the above
[I believe that both options are clearly better than all others, and I don't care which we choose. Count my vote as 1/2 for each one.]
4. Neither (or none) of the above
[I believe that both options are clearly worse than at least one other that is not listed above. Count my vote as 1/2 _against_ each one.]
5. N/A - I don't care
[I really couldn't care less about this particular poll, but I feel obligated to vote simply to re-affirm my right to vote in other upcoming elections. Count this vote as an intentional blank, good only for tracking the total number of people voting. Do _not_ count this in the base for determining consensus.]
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Check the following if you agree:
6. This is a negative-based vote
[I don't really like the candidate I voted for above. However, I feel forced to vote for it/him because I have strong negative feelings about the major alternative. Rather than a vote "for" my choice, it should be counted as a vote "against" the other major choice.]
[end of proposed ballot]
It seems to me that, if we are looking for consensus, the winning option should have at least a simple majority of all votes cast, after all votes are counted as above. If no option can garner 51% of the vote, then you don't have consensus.
Example: If 100 people vote, and 27 want and vote for A, and 27 vote for B, while another 28 vote for A only because they believe that B is bad, then A will get 55% of the vote in a traditional American election. On the other hand, counting as suggested above would show A with 27% while B ends up with -1% -which tells us that there is a serious problem with the two choices.
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