vote-counter/README.md
aaron-jack-manning fc4063c13b 0.1.0
2022-06-25 18:43:38 +10:00

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# Vote Counter
An opinionated single transferrable vote counter for the command line.
## Installation
Installation can be done via cargo by running:
```
cargo install vote-counter
```
## Demo
A sample `csv` file in the appropriate format is provided at the top level of this repository. Run:
```
vote-counter sample.csv --report
```
to count the votes from that file.
## Arguments
Running `vote-counter --help` will output the following:
```
USAGE:
vote-counter [OPTIONS] <PATH>
ARGS:
<PATH> Path to the CSV containing the ballots
OPTIONS:
-h, --help Print help information
--report Generate report of counting
-t, --threshold <THRESHOLD> Threshold to win [default: 0.5]
-V, --version Print version information
```
explaining each argument and how to use it.
## Ballot File
The ballot file should be a `csv` formatted as below:
| Peter | Mia | Hannah | Lee | Fred | Julia |
| ----- | --- | ------ | --- | ---- | ----- |
| | 2 | 1 | | | 3 |
| 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
Each row represents a ballot paper, where preferenced are expressed starting at 1, and continuing until the voter no longer has a preference.
## Validity of Votes
This program is generally permissive in the votes that are considered valid. If a ballot includes any number of non-negative preference numbers, none of which are repeating, the ballot is valid.
An invalid ballot occurs when the same preference is expressed twice.
For example, the following are not valid:
| Peter | Mia | Hannah | Lee | Fred | Julia |
| ----- | --- | ------ | --- | ---- | ----- |
| 1 | 1 | | 3 | | |
| 0 | 1 | | 4 | | 4 |
| 2 | | 2 | | 1 | |
However the following are valid:
| Peter | Mia | Hannah | Lee | Fred | Julia |
| ----- | --- | ------ | --- | ---- | ----- |
| 0 | 1 | 2 | | | 3 |
| | | 1 | 4 | | |
| 2 | | 5 | | | 1 |
Negative numbers are simply ignored.