# Who Was the Greatest President The Elimination Game

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 23, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305 "2009-09-23T23:09:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305/1 "2009-09-23T23:09:06Z")

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I originally posted this yesterday however the moderators complained that I posted too many polls and closed all of them. :mad: So now I’ve recreated my favourite of the polls.

This poll will list nine US Presidents and one other option. The winning President (ie who gets the most votes) will be eliminated and then a new poll created with the list reduced by one this process will continue until all the Presidents have been listed. Now ready set go!

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305/2 "2009-09-23T23:39:07Z")

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> [@Curtis LeMay](#):
>
> This poll will list nine US Presidents and one other option. The winning President (ie who gets the most votes) will be eliminated and then a new poll created with the list reduced by one this process will continue until all the Presidents have been listed. Now ready set go!

That’s a terrible way to pick the winner. Instead, you should use [approval voting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) and rank the candidates by how many votes they each receive.

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305/3 "2009-09-23T23:46:39Z")

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> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> That’s a terrible way to pick the winner. Instead, you should use [approval voting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) and rank the candidates by how many votes they each receive.

It would be good except that the options of the poll are limited.

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**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-the-elimination-game/511305/4 "2009-09-24T00:29:03Z")

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\<mod\>

> [@Curtis LeMay](#):
>
> The winning President (ie who gets the most votes) will be eliminated a **nd then a new poll created** with the list reduced by one **this process will continue until all the Presidents have been listed**.

No, no no, no…

**Curtis** , you’re making a game out of polling.

Games go in The Game Room. Where polls are not turned on.

This is abuse of the polling function as it is currently set up on the board. Don’t do this again.

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