Geez... with all the negativity on here (I realize he's asking for criticism, but would it hurt to throw in a tad of positive feedback as well?!) I feel obligated to tell you that I think what you've created, while it still needs a bit of polish and refinement, is quite impressive and useful (especially made me think of it's application for all those DIY sites). Granted I know jack about Flash, but your plan player wowed the pants off me and performed without issue in Firefox.
As for suggestions, I agree with most of the others that the landing page could use some work in order to be more engaging and clear as to exactly what the site does. Also, I think it really might help to change the background image to something less cartoonish that comes across as more practical, useful, and more visually representative of the site function... perhaps a design incorporating various planning-related graphics such as arrows, bullets, step numbers (1., 2., 3., etc.), times, clocks, check boxes, percentages, etc.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing its progression!
Man, only if http://www.modernballots.com (from this thread earlier today -> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1115385) supported images (or better yet, some kind of web markup, i.e. textile) as "candidates" this would make for a great use of the site, seeing as I don't love or hate any of the logos and would find giving each a star rating much more appropriate.
1) I noticed the top pie chart image actually links to a YouTube video explaining the general concept of the site. There is no indication on or adjacent to the pie chart image (i.e. text, mouseover) informing the user there is an explanatory video to be seen if they click the image. I would imagine most users come and leave the site without ever knowing that video exists.
Given this, I might suggest embedding the video right on the home page in place of the static pie chart image since:
a) the video provides more explanation and is more engaging than a static image. Furthermore, in my experience, modern web users (and humans in general) are lazy and much prefer watching a video to reading text as a means of learning.
b) the video's first frame shows the same graph as the image (only difference being the colors of the pie slices), so even if the user doesn't wish to load/watch the video, they still see the first frame which conveniently agrees with the existing text to the right (excepting the different colors as mentioned)
c) any custom video takes time and effort to create, so why not showcase it and make sure it gets seen?
2) Consider creating a better header banner with perhaps a custom logo or simply more visual textures/patterns to catch the eye and leave more of a visual impression on the user. If nothing else, change either the color of the "ModernBallots.com" title or the banner background as there currently isn't enough contrast between the two, making the title difficult to read. You want this to be much more prominent and visually appealing (not obnoxious) since it's the title and URL of the site.
3) Provide a way for users to Search/Browse existing elections.
4) Allow users to embed elections in external pages/sites. This may be the most important item of all as far as getting your site "out there", hits/activity, and user mindshare.
Obviously, there is a ton more functionality that could be added to the site (i.e. login/user accounts, related elections list (when viewing a particular election), election/candidate level comments, option to choose/change the unit of rank (i.e. [1:2:3:4:5], ['really bad':'bad':'ok':'good':'really good'], etc.), and on and on), but I'm sure you've already thought of all these and many more. However, I would focus on addressing the four items I mentioned first and foremost.
Now that I've clobbered you with criticism/suggestions, I'd like to say that I do really like the simple, straight-forward design, the slim page width, the functionality and ease of use, the straying from political examples (especially since the words "ballot" and "election" are so closely associated with political elections), the homepage text, and especially the nod/reference to the source of the site's concept (Schulze STV). Giving credit where credit is due is so rare today in the cut-throat web startup world, so it's nice to see you do that.
As for suggestions, I agree with most of the others that the landing page could use some work in order to be more engaging and clear as to exactly what the site does. Also, I think it really might help to change the background image to something less cartoonish that comes across as more practical, useful, and more visually representative of the site function... perhaps a design incorporating various planning-related graphics such as arrows, bullets, step numbers (1., 2., 3., etc.), times, clocks, check boxes, percentages, etc.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing its progression!