I like @pisum’s more complex example. As I’m understanding the discussion above, the current system would say that it’s 7 v 3 in favour of Animalia at Kingdom (so the cabbages are maverick), then it’s only 6 vs 4 in favour of Arthropods so the CID is Animals.
In the system proposed by @sbushes (appropriately called ‘funneled’ by @pisum) it would say
7 v 3 in favour of Animalia at Kingdom so cabbages are maverick and discounted,
then within Animalia it’s 6 v 1 in favour of Phylum Arthropoda, so ‘Human’ is maverick and discounted.
then within Arthropoda there’s unanimity (6 v 0) all the way to Class Arachnida
but at Order it is split 3 v 2 v 1, so no single option has >2/3s support and the CID is Arachnida.
I do think the latter is much better (Just imagine how many expert species ID’s you’d need in Harvestmen to overturn that lot!), I can see that it’s a little more complicated, but only because at each level you need to reference previous levels to know if any IDs need to be ignored in the calculation. I can’t comment on the computational aspects, or effect on the speed of the site etc. but if it’s practicable I’d be in favour.