New Zealand recently voted on a potential new design for their flag. The question was:
"If the New Zealand flag changes, which flag would you prefer?"
The five options were chosen by a government appointed committee:
As you can see the first option and last option are the same design with one of the colours changed.
Preferential Voting was used - and explained here.
It has been suggested that as voters were asked to rank their options in order of preference and the first/last options are basically the same flag the outcome was heavily skewed in their favour.
Can someone please explain how the outcome is affected by having two almost identical options in a Preferential Voting system?