Independence of irrelevant alternatives

In voting systems, independence of irrelevant alternatives is the property some voting systems have that, if one option (X) wins the election, and a new alternative (Y) is added, only X or Y will win the election.

A less strict property is sometimes called local independence of irrelevant alternatives. It says that if one option (X) wins an election, and a new alternative (Y) is added, X will win the election if Y is not in the Smith set.

All Condorcet methods fail the former criterion, but some satisfy the latter.

None of the Borda count, Coombs' method or Instant-runoff voting meet either criterion.

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