About the Single Transferable Vote (STV)

What is the Single Transferable Vote (STV)?

STV is an electoral system designed to minimize wasted votes and to produce proportional representation, while at the same time giving voters more choice over who their representatives will be.

Why the Single Transferable Vote?

Although several members are elected together, every voter must have only a single vote so that each vote has the same effect and to ensure proportional representation.

Although each voter has only a single vote, the voters can list, in order of preference, those candidates they would like to support.

What does a transferable vote mean?

If the candidate who is your first choice receives more votes than he or she needs to be elected, the surplus votes will be transferred to your second choice. If, in turn, that candidate has more votes than are needed, then the surplus is again transferred to the next preferences as indicated by the voters.

However, if the candidate who is your first choice has so few votes that he or she does not have enough support to be elected, your vote will be transferred to your second choice. Similarly, if that candidate also does not have enough support, your vote will be transferred to your third choice, and so on.

Voting with STV

How do I fill in the electronic ballot?

Instead of casting votes for as many candidates as there are vacant seats in your region, you indicate a ‘1’ for your favourite candidate and can then put a ‘2’ for your second choice, a ‘3’ for your third choice and so on for as many candidates on the electronic ballot as you want.

What if I want to vote for only one candidate?

Your favourite candidate will not be disadvantaged if you list other preferences: these preferences will only be used if your first choice candidate is either safely elected or eliminated.

You can, if you wish, show support for only one candidate, but the more candidates for whom you do show preferences, the more likely your vote will influence the outcome of the elections. How are votes counted in an STV election?

The first step is the calculation of the number of votes which candidates must receive to be elected. This is called the ‘quota’.

The electronic ballots are then sorted according to voters’ first choices. Candidates with at least the quota are then declared elected. The surplus votes (the number of votes over the quota) of these candidates are then transferred to other candidates according to voters’ second choices. Any new surpluses created by this process are similarly transferred.

If not enough candidates have been elected, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated. That candidate’s votes are then transferred to the (unelected) candidates marked as the next choice by the voters.

The transfer of surpluses and the elimination of candidates continue until the required number of candidates has been elected.