Single transferable vote: Difference between revisions
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STV provides this proportionality simply by wasting as few votes as possible. A vote is "wasted" if it does not elect anyone; it is partially wasted if it elects someone who gets more votes than is necessary to be elected. STV transfers votes that would otherwise be wasted, and it only transfers such votes.
The degree of proportionality nationwide is strongly related to the number of seats to be filled in each constituency. In a three-seat constituency, using the Droop quota, about a quarter of the vote is "wasted". These votes may be for minor candidates that were not eliminated, or elected candidates' surplus votes that did not get redistributed. In a nine-seat constituency, only a tenth of the vote is wasted, and a party needs only 10% of the vote in a constituency to win a seat. Consequently, the best proportionality is achieved when there are a large number of representatives per constituency.
The proportionality of STV can be controversial, especially in close elections such as the [[1981]] election in [[Malta]]. In this election the Maltese Labour Party won a majority of seats despite the Nationalist Party winning a majority of first preference votes. This caused a constitutional crisis, leading to provision for the possibility of bonus seats. These bonus seats were used in [[1987]] and again in [[1996]]. Similarly, the [[Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 1998|Northern Ireland elections]] in [[1998]] led to the [[Ulster Unionist]]s winning more seats than the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]], despite winning a smaller share of the vote.
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== Potential for Tactical Voting ==
The single transferable vote eliminates much of the reason for [[
because their votes will be reallocated in Process B. They are "safe" voting for a candidate they believe will receive overwhelming support, because their votes
will get reallocated in Process A.
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== External links ==
*[http://dmoz.org/Society/Politics/Campaigns_and_Elections/Voting_Systems/Single_Transferable_Vote/ ODP category]
* [http://www.OpenSTV.org/ OpenSTV]
* [http://www.prsa.org.au Proportional Representation Society of Australia]
* [http://www.oasis.gov.ie/government_in_ireland/elections/proportional_representation.html?PHPSESSID=fe117d4bb6373eea8e4bf359999978c5 The Single Transferrable Vote procedure in Ireland]
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