Programming Assignment 2 (Voting)

Simple Voting Scheme

Write a Python program that reads a file containing votes indicated by name of candidate, one per line, and counts and declares the winner (candidate with most number of votes). If there is a tie for first place, all candidates are declared the winner. Here are the contents of a possible input file and a sample run of the program:

mirage:02-vote raj$ more vote1.dat 
Red
Blue
Green
Blue
Blue
Red
mirage:02-vote raj$ python3 Vote1.py vote1.dat 
Votes:  ['Red', 'Blue', 'Green', 'Blue', 'Blue', 'Red']
Winner:  Blue

Here is an example with a tie for first place:

mirage:02-vote raj$ more vote1.dat 
Red
Blue
Green
Blue
Blue
Red
Red
mirage:02-vote raj$ python3 Vote1.py vote1.dat 
Votes:  ['Red', 'Blue', 'Green', 'Blue', 'Blue', 'Red', 'Red']
Winner:  Blue
Winner:  Red

Ranked Voting Scheme

In this modified voting scheme, each ballot lists 1st preference, 2nd preference, etc. The voting ballots are again present in a text file with each line corresponding to a single ballot. The candidates are listed in preference order and are separated by commas. Here is a sample input file:

mirage:02-vote raj$ more vote2.dat 
Red,Green
Blue
Green,Red,Blue
Blue,Green,Red
Green

The method to determine the winner proceeds by eliminating candidate(s) with lowest number of 1st choice votes (if there are ties, eliminate all). This process is repeated until a single candidate remains. That candidate is declared the winner. If by eliminating candidates in any one round no candidate remains then all the candidates remaining in that round are declared the winner.

Mac-mini:02-vote raj$ python3 Vote2.py vote2.dat 
Ballots:  [['Red', 'Green'], ['Blue'], ['Green', 'Red', 'Blue'], ['Blue', 'Green', 'Red'], ['Green']]
Winner:  Green