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AES Notebook Single Transferable VotePolitical
scientists have long been advocated the Single Transferable Vote (STV) as
one of the most attractive electoral systems. It is also used in Australia
for elections to the Tasmanian House of Assembly, the Australian Capital
Territory Legislative Assembly, and the federal Senate and in Northern
Ireland local elections. The
first stage of the count is to ascertain the total number of
first-preference votes for each candidate. If no one has achieved the
quota, the candidate with the lowest number of first preferences is
eliminated, with his or her second preferences being redistributed to the
candidates left in the race. At the same time, the surplus votes of
elected candidates (i.e., those votes above the quota) are redistributed
according to the second preferences on the ballot papers. For fairness,
all the candidate's ballot papers are redistributed, but each at a
fractional percentage of one vote, so that the total redistributed vote
equals the candidate's surplus (except in the Republic of Ireland, which
uses a weighted sample). If a candidate had 100 votes, for example, and
their surplus was ten votes, then each ballot paper would be redistributed
at the value of 1/10th of a vote. This process continues until all seats
for the constituency are filled. |
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Copyright (C) NJIT 2003 |
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