Some
online elections at OpaVote have a very large number of candidates. We'll sometimes see a single contest with hundreds of candidates or many contests where each contest has a large number of candidates.
An OpaVote manager recently asked me the best way to run an election with a large number of candidates. The best answer is
don't run an election with a large number of candidates! In some instances, it may be unavoidable, but as an election manager, you should work hard to have a reasonable number of candidates.
In this blog post, we explain (1) why should not have a large number of candidates and (2) if you do, how to improve the process.
Don't Run Elections with a Large Number of Candidates
As an election manager, by asking your voters to vote in an election, you are asking each of your voters to do a favor for you. Your voters are busy people, and they have lots of things going on in their lives. They also get overwhelmed with emails. You are lucky if they open the voting email, never mind clicking a link in the email and then reviewing a list of candidates to cast a vote.
