Editing Ranked pairs (section)

== Procedure ==
The ranked pairs procedure is as follows:

# Consider each pair of candidates round-robin style, and [[Pairwise counting|calculate the pairwise margin of victory]] for each in a one-on-one matchup.
# Sort the pairs by the ([[Absolute value|absolute]]) margin of victory, going from largest to smallest.
# Going down the list, check whether adding each matchup would create a [[Condorcet cycle|cycle]]. If it would, [[cross out]] the election; this will be the election(s) in the cycle with the smallest margin of victory (near-ties).{{NoteTag|Rather than crossing out near-ties, step 3 is sometimes described as going down the list and confirming ("locking in") the largest victories that do not create a cycle, then ignoring any victories that are not locked-in.}}

At the end of this procedure, all cycles will be eliminated, leaving a unique winner who wins all of the remaining one-on-one matchups. The lack of cycles means that candidates can be ranked directly based on the matchups that have been left behind.