Election Update # 1
The single transferable vote (STV) is a voting system designed to achieve or closely approach proportional representation through the use of multiple-member constituencies and each voter casting a single ballot on which candidates are ranked. The preferential or ranked voting allows transfer of votes to produce proportionality, to form consensus behind the most-popular candidates and to avoid the waste of votes prevalent under other voting systems.
Another name for STV is multi-winner ranked-choice voting.
Under STV, each elector (voter) casts a single vote in a district election that elects multiple winners. Each elector marks their ballot for the most preferred candidate and also marks back-up preferences.
A vote goes to the voter's first preference if possible, but if the first preference is eliminated, instead of being thrown away, the vote is transferred to a back-up preference, with the vote being assigned to the voter's second, third, or lower choice if possible (or under some systems being apportioned fractionally to different candidates).
As long as there are more candidates than seats, the least popular is eliminated and their votes transferred based on voters' marked back-up preferences.
A quota (the minimum number of votes that guarantees election) is calculated and candidates who accumulate that number of votes are declared elected.
