SRV complete rules in one sentence?

Score Runoff: of the two highest-scoring candidates, we elect the one which more total voters scored higher than the other.

Which to emphasize first, the runoff or the scoring?

Mark's reads better.

But I gotta ask.. what's the catch?

Just trying to communicate it more simply, plus get in something that explains what happens if you score the top two the same.

I like Aaron's. Both are 21 words.

"preference difference" and "majority favorite" aren't phrases that read well.

Mine can be shortened but less precise:

Score Runoff: of the 2 highest-scoring candidates, we elect the one scored higher by more voters.

Which to emphasize first, the runoff or the scoring?

Scoring comes first, because that's the premise of the voter experience: marking scores, and it's also what happens first in the narrative of the calculation.

Score Runoff Voting elects the majority's choice of those who express a preference between the two overall highest-scoring candidates.

Trying to make it all parse in one big phrase is the wrong direction. To demonstrate:

Completely unusable single sentence:

In the voting system called Score Runoff Voting (aka SRV), the majority of the voters who score differently the top two highest-overall-scoring candidates in a race determine which of those two win based on counting each voter equally regardless of the amount of score difference.

Same info and uncomfortable length becomes at least functional because ideas are chunked into small bits:

Score Runoff is a voting system. For short, we use "SRV". In SRV, voters score candidates. The winner is determined by this process: Add up the scores. Look at the first and second highest scoring candidates. Check how many ballots gave those two a different score. Of those ballots, add up how many preferred one or the other of the two candidates. In this step, we only consider order and not the exact scores. The candidate with more ballots showing preference their way wins the election.

Both of these are bad. But the second is readable because you can stop at each sentence and get it before moving on.

Sometimes, smaller chunks lead to longer total length (as above), so there's some trade-off. But I suggest nearly always trying for the smallest chunks whenever it's not substantially longer length.

Candidates are all given scores and whichever finalist you scored higher gets a vote from you in the runoff.

Candidates are each given a score and whichever finalist you scored higher gets a vote from you in the runoff.

Of the two highest scoring candidates overall, Score Runoff Voting elects the one preferred by more voters.

Give each candidate a score from 0-5, the finalist you scored higher gets your vote in the runoff.