► How voting works
We use the Transferable Vote system in all our elections. This is different to Parliamentary elections, where it is a case of the person with the most votes in the first round wins. Transferable Vote allows your vote to get the maximum satisfaction from your vote. This means that the least unpopular candidate is elected to the position.
Voting
Each voter is asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, with 1 being their first choice. RON means Re-open Nominations. If you would rather none of the candidates got the position than had them represent you, this option is used.
Example
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Candidate A
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2
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Candidate B
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1
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Candidate C
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4
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RON
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3
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Here the voter wants Candidate B to represent them, but if they don't get elected they would like Candidate A to. If neither Candidate A or B are elected they would rather nominations were reopened than Candidate C represented them.
Counting Votes
When voting closes, all the completed ballot forms are counted and allocated to each candidate according to the first preference indicated. The number of valid votes is then counted. This is then used to work out the quota. The quota is the minimum number of votes a candidate needs to win the election outright, and so is at least 50% + 1 of the votes cast. If there is one candidate they must have at least 50% of votes plus 1 to win.
When there are more than two candidates running for the same position, it is unlikely (but does happen) that a single candidate will achieve the quota in the first round. If no candidate reaches the quota, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and each of their votes is re-allocated to the next expressed preference on that ballot slip. If, at the end of this second round of counting, the required quota has still not been achieved by any of the remaining candidates, then the process is repeated. The candidate with the least number of total votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed again.
This process of elimination and redistribution is repeated until a candidate either achieves the required quota of 50% of the valid number of votes plus one, or until the final round, where only two candidates remain. In this case, the candidate with the highest number of total votes will be elected.
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