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Voting Systems

Single Transferable Vote

No electoral system is perfect. Some are, however, more perfect than others.

The Electoral Reform Society believes that where candidates are being elected to multiple vacancies, STV offers voters the best and most effective choice.

What is STV?

STV uses preferential voting in multi-member constituencies. Each voter gets one vote, which can transfer from their first-preference to their second-preference and so on, as necessary. Candidates don't need a majority of votes to be elected, just a known 'quota', or share of the votes, determined by the size of the electorate and the number of positions to be filled.

If your preferred candidate has no chance of being elected or has enough votes already, your vote is transferred to another candidate in accordance with your instructions. STV thus ensures that very few votes are wasted, unlike other systems, especially First-Past-the-Post, where only a small number of votes actually contribute to the result.

Real-world application of STV

· All elections in the Republic of Ireland, except elections for the presidency and by-elections which are both conducted using the Alternative Vote.

· Assembly, European and local government elections in Northern Ireland.

· Local elections in Scotland, from 2007.

· The Australian Senate.

· The Tasmanian House of Assembly.

· The indirect elections to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's federal Parliament.

· All elections in Malta.

· Various local authorities in New Zealand.

· Many UK student unions (it is promoted by the National Union of Students as the fairest electoral system) and other private organisations.

STV in Britain

The use of STV in Britain is not without precedent. In 1917, the House of Commons voted in favour of proposals to use STV for 211 of the 569 UK constituencies and the Alternative Vote for the rest. However, after five successive rejections by the House of Lords, the plans were ditched.

STV was used for the university constituencies from 1918 until the abolition of university seats in 1950.

Different forms of STV

STV differs slightly depending on where in the world it is used.

For elections to the Australian Senate, for example, most voters cast their vote for a party ticket 'above the line'. This distributes preferences according to a party's wishes and thus makes the Senate elections more like open-list PR.

In Malta, there is an allowance for adjustments to be made if one party ends up with the most votes but not the most seats.

Different ways to count an STV election

There are a number of ways to count an STV election. The Electoral Reform Society recommends its own rules for counting votes under STV, which can be read here>>.

See Wikipedia for more information on the different methods.

Downloads

What is Stv?

Leaflet

Questions and Answers on STV