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).
Where there are more candidates than seats, the least popular is eliminated and their votes transferred based on voters' marked back-up preferences. In some systems surplus votes not needed by successful candidates are transferred proportionally, as described below. Elections and/or eliminations, and vote transfers where applicable, continue until enough candidates are declared elected or until there are only as many remaining candidates as there are unfilled seats, at which point the remaining candidates are declared elected.
The specific method of transferring votes varies in different systems (see § Quota and vote transfers).
STV enables votes to be cast for individual candidates rather than for parties or party machine-controlled party lists. Compared to first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting, STV reduces the number of "wasted" votes, which are those cast for unsuccessful candidates and for successful candidates over and above those needed to secure a seat. STV avoids this waste by transferring a vote to another preferred candidate.
STV also provides approximately proportional representation, ensuring that substantial minority factions have some representation. No one party or voting block can take all the seats in a district. The key to STV's achievement of proportionality is that each elector (voter) only casts one single vote, in a district election electing multiple winners.
Under STV, district elections grow more proportionally representative in direct relation to increase in the number of seats to be elected in a constituency – the more seats, the more the distribution of the seats in a district will be proportional. For example, in a three-seat STV election using the Hare Quota of ( valid votes cast ) / ( seats to fill ) {\displaystyle ({\rm {\mbox{valid votes cast}}})/({\rm {\mbox{seats to fill}}})} , a candidate or party needs 33 percent of the votes to win a seat. In a seven-seat STV district, any candidate who can get the support of approximately 14 percent of the vote (either first preferences alone or a combination of first preferences and lower-ranked preferences transferred from other candidates) will win a seat.
Instant runoff voting (IRV) is the single-winner analogue of STV. It is also called "single-winner ranked-choice voting". Its goal is representation of a majority of the voters in a district by a single official, as opposed to STV's goal of proportional representation of all the substantial voting blocks by multiple officials.
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