Plurality

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Related to pluralities: relative majority

Plurality

In an election with three or more choices, the choice that receives the most votes without attaining 50%. For example, in an election in which Candidate A receives 35% of the vote, Candidate B receives 20%, and Candidate C receives 45%, Candidate C wins with a plurality of the vote.

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References in periodicals archive ?

If the existence and persistence of pluralities can be accommodated within other views, then it seems that empirical pluralism needs to be motivated by other, perhaps uniquely philosophical, considerations.

Stephen Kellert, Helen Longino and Kenneth Waters, eds.: Scientific Pluralism. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume XIX

In that case, the election was held on the same day throughout the country, but the decision rule was that the candidate who won pluralities in the most congressional districts would be the party's nominee, even if that candidate did not have the plurality of the national popular vote.

Elections: the American process of selecting a president: a comparative perspective

Pluralities, but not majorities, see them as harsh and as torture but also as effective and justified