Rank the options. Find the group favorite.

Why rank instead of just vote?

A normal (plurality) poll counts only each person's first choice. When several good options split the vote, an option almost nobody actually wants can win with the largest minority — while a broadly-liked compromise gets ignored. Ranking fixes this: everyone puts the options in order, and rankit scores the whole order, so the option most people are happy with rises to the top.

A worked example

Five people are picking a team-offsite city. Here is how each ranked the four options (1 = favorite, 4 = least favorite):

Count only first choices (a plain poll): Lisbon 2, Austin 1, Denver 1, Portland 1 → Lisbon wins. But three of the five voters ranked Lisbon dead last.

How the Borda count scores it

With four options each ballot awards 3 points for 1st place, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd and 0 for last. Add up every ballot and you get the group ranking:

Austin was almost nobody's favorite yet nearly everybody's strong second — so it's the choice the group as a whole prefers. Plurality would have sent everyone to the one city most of them liked least. That gap is exactly what rankit surfaces.

When a ranking poll is the right tool

• Three or more real options. With only two choices, ranking and a plain vote give the same answer — use a normal poll.
• You want buy-in, not just a winner. A consensus pick people can live with beats a narrow winner half the group resents.
• The options are similar in kind — cities, dates, restaurants, names, features to build next — so ordering them makes sense.
• Small-to-medium groups. Teams, clubs, friends, classes. Everyone ranks in a few seconds on one shared link.

Common questions

Is this the same as instant-runoff / RCV? Not quite. Instant-runoff eliminates the lowest option round by round; rankit uses the Borda count, which scores every position on every ballot at once. Borda rewards broadly-liked compromises, which is usually what a group planning something together actually wants.

Do voters need an account? No. You create the ranking, share one link, and each person drags the options into order and submits. No signup, no app, nothing to install.

Can people rank fewer than all the options? Everyone ranks the full set so scores compare fairly — it only takes a moment because it's drag-to-order, not typing.