single transferable vote at student elections

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  Former Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru

  February 2008

  There are various versions of STP, this is one of the more common ones.
  
  When people vote, they number their preferences 1, 2, 3.
  
  All the 1st preferences get tallied. If there is a signifacant majority the process stops here (% is usually set by the voting procedure). If there is no overwhelming majority at this point the lowest scoring candidate is removed from the list and all the ballot papers who put them as first preference are reallocated based on the 2nd preference.
  
  So, if you vote You, Ron, Them and you come last in the first round of counting, your vote will be reallocated to Ron rather than to the other candidate. Generally Ron comes last, so how people who vote Ron as 1 rank the other two candidates is far more likely to matter than those who rank a person first.

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  Former Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru

  February 2008

  It all depends on how many positions are available and how many are running. If you get over the quote in first preference votes then you're through and then second preference votes come in, then third and so on and so on until all spaces are reached. So you may nearly reach the quota but are hated by everyone else so much that you don't get any other preference votes and miss out even though someone who gets much lower in the first count can still get through. It can be unfair but it's much better than FPTP.

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