Most polls are binary or single-choice. You pick one thing. The majority wins. Done.
That simplicity is also a limitation. It discards the intensity of preferences.
A concrete example
Imagine four friends deciding where to eat. The options are sushi, pizza, and Thai.
- Alice: loves sushi, doesn't mind Thai, dislikes pizza
- Bob: fine with anything, slight pizza preference
- Carlos: strongly wants Thai
- Diana: doesn't care at all
In a standard poll, sushi might win with two votes. But Carlos's strong preference for Thai is completely invisible. So is Diana's indifference.
With percentage voting, Alice might go 60 / 10 / 30, Carlos 5 / 5 / 90. The aggregate Thai score would be much higher than a winner-takes-all vote suggests. You'd actually end up at the Thai place, and Carlos would be much happier.
When nuance matters most
Percentage voting works best when:
- **No option is clearly dominant.** If everyone loves the same thing, a simple vote is fine.
- **The stakes are asymmetric.** One person might have a strong objection that others don't register.
- **The group is trying to optimise for collective satisfaction,** not just find a majority winner.
The math of collective happiness
If you use the average percentage across all voters, you're essentially computing a weighted group utility score. The option with the highest average score maximises collective satisfaction — which is what good group decisions try to do.
That's the idea behind Fiftis. It's not about who wins. It's about finding the option the group genuinely wants most.