(steve) 02/04: refactor: shuffle candidates in vote_on_page to prevent bias

[gs...@apache.org]

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gstein pushed a commit to branch trunk
in repository https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/steve.git

commit 65d13fa86b456525360693dcf60afdfd2ee037e9
Author: Greg Stein <gs...@gmail.com>
AuthorDate: Sat Feb 21 20:43:33 2026 -0600

    refactor: shuffle candidates in vote_on_page to prevent bias
    
    Co-authored-by: aider (openrouter/x-ai/grok-code-fast-1) <ai...@aider.chat>
---
 v3/server/pages.py | 4 +++-
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/v3/server/pages.py b/v3/server/pages.py
index a86338e..305dd51 100644
--- a/v3/server/pages.py
+++ b/v3/server/pages.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import pathlib
 import datetime
 import functools
 import logging
+import random
 
 from easydict import EasyDict as edict
 import asfpy.stopwatch
@@ -280,7 +281,8 @@ async def vote_on_page(election):
         issue.seats = issue.kv.get('seats', 0)
         issue.labelmap = edict(issue.kv.get('labelmap', {}))
         issue.candidates = [{'label': k, 'name': v} for k, v in issue.labelmap.items()]
-        issue.candidates.sort(key=lambda c: c['name'])  # Sort candidates by name for consistency
+        # Shuffle candidates to prevent bias towards the first listed candidate
+        random.shuffle(issue.candidates)
 
     # Compute counts and plurals
     yna_count = len(issues_yna)