The
history and usage of the Single Transferable Vote voting systemA voting system or voting theory, allows voters to choose between options, often in an election where candidates are selected for public office. Voting can be also used to award prizes, to select between different plans of action, or by a computer program to find a solution to a problem...
has been a series of relatively modest periods of usage and disusage throughout the world, however today it is seeing increasing popularity and proposed implementation as a method of
electoral reformElectoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:*Voting systems, such as runoff voting, instant runoff voting, approval voting, citizen initiatives and referendums, recall elections, and proportional...
. The
Single Transferable VoteThe Single transferable vote is a system of preferential voting designed to minimize "wasted" votes and provide proportional representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly expressed for individual candidates rather than for party lists...
has been used in many different local, regional and national electoral systems, as well as in various other types of bodies, around the world.
Early history
The concept of transferable voting was first proposed by
Thomas Wright HillThomas Wright Hill was a schoolmaster and steganographer. He is credited as inventing the single transferable vote in 1821...
in 1821. The system remained unused in real elections until 1855, when Carl Andræ proposed a transferable vote system for elections in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. Andræ's system was used in 1856 to elect the Danish
RigsdagRigsdagen was the name of the Parliament of Denmark from 1849 to 1953.Rigsdagen was Denmark's first parliament, and it was incorporated in the Constitution of 1849. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of two houses, the Folketing and the Landstinget. The distinction between the two houses...
, and by 1866 it was also adapted for indirect elections to the second chamber, the
LandstingThe Landsting was a house of the Rigsdag in Denmark from 1849 until 1953, when the bicameral system was abolished. The house had powers equal to the Folketing, which made the two houses of parliament hard to distinguish....
, until 1915.
Although he was not the first to propose a system of transferable votes, the English
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
Thomas Hare is generally credited with the conception of Single Transferable Voting, and he may have independently developed the idea in 1857. Hare's view was that STV should be a means of "making the exercise of the suffrage a step in the elevation of the individual character, whether it be found in the majority or the minority." In
Hare's original STV systemHare method, named for Thomas Hare, may refer to two related voting systems:*Instant-runoff voting for single seat elections;*Hare method for electing multi-seat constituencies....
, he further proposed that electors should have the opportunity of discovering which candidate their vote had ultimately counted for, to improve their personal connection with voting.
The noted political essayist,
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill , English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
, was a friend of Hare and an early proponent of STV, praising it in his essay "On Representation." His contemporary,
Walter BagehotWalter Bagehot was a British businessman, essayist, and journalist who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economic affairs.-Early Years:...
, also praised the Hare system for allowing everyone to elect an MP, even ideological minorities, but also added that the Hare system would create more problems than it solved: "[the Hare system] is inconsistent with the extrinsic independence as well as the inherent moderation of a Parliament - two of the conditions we have seen, are essential to the bare possibility of parliamentary government."
STV spread through the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
, leading it to be sometimes known as
British Proportional Representation. In 1896,
Andrew Inglis ClarkAndrew Inglis Clark was an Australian politician. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, five years before the end of convict transportation to Tasmania. He became a mechanical engineer, then later studied law, being admitted to the Tasmanian Bar in January 1877...
was successful in persuading the
Tasmanian House of AssemblyThe House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.-Overview:...
to adopt what became known as the
Hare-Clark system, named after himself and Thomas Hare.
In the twentieth century many refinements were made to Hare's original system, by scholars such as Droop, Meek, Warren and Tideman (see:
Counting Single Transferable Votes- Voting :If a class of children were choosing representatives, say, they could line-up behind the candidate of their choice. They would all know that each candidate only needs a certain number of classmates to vote for them to be elected...
for further details).
Republic of Ireland
Proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote is used for all public elections in the
Republic of IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
, with the exception of single-winner elections (
presidentialThe President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
elections and single-vacancy by-elections) which are conducted under
Instant Run-off VotingInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
(that is, an STV election in which there is only a single winner). The most important elections in the Republic are those to
Dáil Éireannis the principal chamber of the Oireachtas . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote . Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is...
, the
lower houseA lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power...
of the
OireachtasThe Oireachtas is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...
(parliament). The Dáil is directly elected from constituencies of between three and five seats. The
Irish constitutionThe Constitution of Ireland is the second constitution of independent Ireland and replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It came into force on 29 December 1937 after having been passed by a national plebiscite on 1 July 1937....
specifies a minimum size of three seats and, although there is no maximum size, there have been no constituencies of more than five seats since 1947.
In the
SenateSeanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas of Ireland and its members are Seanadóirí . The House is also commonly known unofficially as the Seanad or Senate, and its members as senators....
, the weak upper house, six University seats are filled from two three-seat constituencies, while 43 vocational panel seats are filled on a restricted franchise from five panels of up to eleven seats. The panel election rules depart from true STV by requiring a minimum number of candidates to be elected from each of two sub-panels; in the 2007 Cultural and Educational Panel election
Ann OrmondeAnn Ormonde is an Irish politician and member of the 23rd Seanad Éireann for Fianna Fáil. She was elected by the Cultural and Educational Panel. She was first elected to the Seanad in 1992 and re-elected at every subsequent election....
was elected despite having fewer votes than Terence Slowey when Slowey was eliminated.
STV is also used in local and European elections. In elections in the Republic voters are permitted to rank as many or as few candidates as they wish on the ballot paper. All direct elections and are counted by hand; an experiment using computer ballots in three constituencies in the
2002 general electionThe Irish general election of 2002 was held on Friday, 17 May 2002 just over three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday 25 April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern...
was not repeated. All use the simple Hare method of surplus transfers, except for the Senate panels, which use the Gregory method.
STV is also widely used among private organisations, such as student unions.
| Body elected |
Vacancies |
Seats/constituency |
Dáil Éireannis the principal chamber of the Oireachtas . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote . Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is...
|
By-election A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections...
using IRVInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
|
3-5 |
| Local government Local government in the Republic of Ireland is governed by the Local Government Acts, the most recent of which established a two-tier structure of local government. The Local Government Act 1898 is the founding document of the present system of local government...
|
Co-option *A co-option or more often co-optation is an election where members of a committee vote in order to fill a vacancy on that committee or group...
|
3-7 |
| European Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union , it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
|
Replacement list |
3-4 |
History
STV was first used in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1918, when the whole island was part of the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. Although efforts to introduce STV across the UK had been abandoned, STV was adopted for use in local elections in
SligoSligo , is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is the second largest urban area in Connacht . It is home to the Sligo Institute of Technology and St...
in that year, as well to elect the two Members of Parliament returned by the University of Dublin constituency; STV was extended to all Irish local elections later. STV was then used in the
Irish general elections of 1921Two elections in Ireland took place in 1921, as a result of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 to establish the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. The election was used by Irish Republicans as the basis of membership of the Second Dáil...
, and subsequently adopted for all elections by the
Irish Free StateThe Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
in 1922. Part of the reason for this was to ensure that the new state's Protestant minority received adequate representation in the legislature.
Initially 46% of Dáil members were elected from constituencies of seven, eight or nine seats, until 1935 when seven seats became the largest size. Since 1947 Dáil constituencies have been no larger than five seats. The
First SeanadSeanad Éireann was the upper house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State from 1922–1936. It has also been known simply as the Senate, or as the First Seanad. The Senate was established under the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State but a number of constitutional amendments were...
, the senate that existed during the Free State, was originally intended to be directly elected in a popular vote. However this plan was abandoned within a few years so that only one direct senatorial election was ever held. This occurred in 17 September 1925 when, in an event without historical or international parallel, the whole state voted as a single nineteen seat constituency. In the election the ballot paper listed of over seventy candidates, and the count took approximately two weeks to complete. The ultimate results, contrary to the results that might have occurred under a List PR system, strongly favoured non-party candidates.
Two attempts have been made by
Fianna FáilFianna Fáil – The Republican Party , shortened to Fianna Fáil is a political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the largest party in both houses of the Oireachtas, Ireland's bicameral parliament, and the leading party in a coalition government with the Green Party, which also has the support...
governments to abolish STV and replace it with the 'First Past the Post' plurality system. Both attempts were rejected by voters in referendums held in 1959 and again in 1968. In the past,
gerrymanderingGerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape...
was also attempted by several governments, in particular by varying the sizes (that is, the number of seats) of particular constituencies. This attempt backfired, however, in the
1977 general electionThe Irish general election of 1977 was held on 16 June 1977 and is regarded as a pivotal point in twentieth century Irish politics. The general election took place in 42 parliamentary constituencies throughout Ireland for 148 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. The number of...
when a larger than expected vote-swing caused a
tippingIn sociology, a tipping point or angle of repose is the event of a previously rare phenomenon becoming rapidly and dramatically more common. The phrase was coined in its sociological use by Morton Grodzins, by analogy with the fact in physics that adding a small amount of weight to a balanced...
effect resulting in disproportionate losses for the government. This botched attempt at Gerrymandering became known as the "Tullymander" after minister James Tully. Today constituencies are drawn up by an independent commission. Contrary to the common experience with proportional representation, single party (Fianna Fáil) governments were common in the Republic after the maximum constituency size was cut to five seats, holding power in 23 of the 33 years from 1948 to 1981. However since
the 1981 general electionThe Irish general election of 1981 was held on 11 June 1981, three weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 21 May. The newly elected 166 members of the 22nd Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 30 June when a new Taoiseach and government were appointed....
coalitions have been the rule.
Australia
Australia uses two forms of STV, usually referred to within Australia as the
Hare-Clark System and
Proportional Representation. Both systems require voters to rank several, or all, of the candidates on the ballot, reducing or eliminating the possibility of exhausted votes.
The
Hare-Clark System is used in
TasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, from which it is separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania – the 26th largest island in the world – and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 500,000 ,...
's
House of AssemblyThe House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.-Overview:...
and the
Australian Capital Territory (ACT)The Australian Capital Territory is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and its smallest self-governing internal territory. It is an inland enclave in New South Wales, and regularly referred to as Australia's 'Bush Capital'....
Legislative AssemblyAustralian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory...
. This is essentially the system described above using the Droop quota (not the
Hare quotaThe Hare quota is a formula used under some forms of the Single Transferable Vote system and the largest remainder method of party-list proportional representation...
), but candidates' placements, within the column for each party, are randomised by
Robson RotationRobson Rotation is the method of printing multiple ballots for single transferable vote elections, with each having the candidates listed in a different order. To achieve this, a number of designs of ballot paper are printed, and amounts of each design are randomly distributed...
rather than alphabetical. Casual vacancies are filled by countback.
STV or
proportional voting is the system used in the
Australian SenateThe Senate is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia. The lower house is known as the House of Representatives. Senators, popularly elected under a system of proportional representation, serve terms of six years...
and the
Legislative CouncilA Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
s of
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
,
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north, South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, across the Bass Strait. Victoria is the most densely populated state, with over 70% of...
(from 2006),
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
and
South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
. This system is counted in the same way as in Hare-Clark, but
group voting ticketGroup voting tickets are a way to simplify preferential voting, for example in a single transferable vote election.Voters can choose to vote for a ticket by placing the number '1' in one of the ticket boxes or can vote for individual candidates by numbering all the boxes in that section...
s are used. Casual vacancies are usually chosen by a parliament, though they may be required by law or convention to select a nominee of the out-going member’s party.
Each form has its pros and cons. The Hare-Clark system with Robson Rotation is advocated on the grounds that the effect of 'donkey voting' is reduced because of the randomised ordering, and the absence of the
group voting ticketGroup voting tickets are a way to simplify preferential voting, for example in a single transferable vote election.Voters can choose to vote for a ticket by placing the number '1' in one of the ticket boxes or can vote for individual candidates by numbering all the boxes in that section...
s creates more personal accountability. The alternative system is advocated on the grounds that informal voting (spoiled ballots) is reduced because only one number need be written; on the other hand, it greatly increases the potential for tactics by parties as they have direct control of a large percentage of the vote. In the Australian Senate elections, nearly 95% of voters use the group voting tickets instead of ranking their own preferences. As a result, the informal rate reduced from around 10 percent, to around three percent.
| Jurisdiction |
Body elected |
Group tickets |
Vacancies |
Transfer method |
Seats/constituency |
Year introduced |
| Federal Parliament |
Senate The Senate is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia. The lower house is known as the House of Representatives. Senators, popularly elected under a system of proportional representation, serve terms of six years...
|
Yes |
Appointment |
Gregory (inclusive) |
2-6 |
1948 |
Australian Capital TerritoryThe Australian Capital Territory is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and its smallest self-governing internal territory. It is an inland enclave in New South Wales, and regularly referred to as Australia's 'Bush Capital'....
|
Legislative AssemblyAustralian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory...
|
No |
Countback |
Gregory (simple) |
5-7 |
1993 |
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
|
Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. It sits at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
|
Yes |
Appointment |
Random |
21 |
1978 |
South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
|
Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly...
|
Yes |
Appointment |
Gregory (inclusive) |
11 |
1973 |
| Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, from which it is separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania – the 26th largest island in the world – and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 500,000 ,...
|
House of AssemblyThe House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.-Overview:...
|
No |
Countback |
Gregory (simple) |
5 (previously 7) |
1907 |
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
|
Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
|
Yes |
? |
Gregory (weighted inclusive) |
5-7 |
1987 |
See also: Australian electoral systemThe Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
, Electoral systems of the Australian states and territoriesThe legislatures of the Australian states and territories all follow the Westminster model described in the Australian electoral system. When the Australian colonies were granted responsible government in the nineteenth century, their constitutions provided for legislative assemblies elected by...
.
British Columbia
In
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the province of
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
has experimented with alternate forms of balloting and has recently considered reforming its
first-past-the-postThe plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies....
system. Throughout the 1940s, the province had been governed by a
coalitionA coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
of the
ConservativeThe British Columbia Conservative Party is a right-wing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933. Party leader Wilf Hanni, former leader of the Reform Party of British Columbia and British Columbia Party, has...
and Liberal parties. Neither party had sufficient electoral support to form government alone, and the coalition allowed these parties to keep the left-of-centre
Co-operative Commonwealth FederationThe New Democratic Party of British Columbia is a political party in British Columbia, Canada that has democratic socialist roots. The policies it advances today resemble those of social democrats....
(CCF) out of power.
By the 1950s, the coalition had begun to fall apart, resulting in the Conservatives and Liberals having to run for office separately under their own party banners. However, in order to ensure that the CCF was prevented from taking power, one of the last acts of the coalition government was to introduce an alternative voting system (known today in the USA as
instant-runoff votingInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
), which was implemented for the
1952 general electionThe British Columbia general election, 1952 was the 23rd general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 10, 1952, and held on June 12, 1952...
.
Rather than voting for one candidate by marking an “x” on their ballots, electors would rank their choices for the candidates running in their constituency by placing numbers next to the names of the candidates on the ballot. If a candidate received a majority of votes cast, that candidate would be elected. If not, the candidate with the least number of votes was dropped and the second choices were allocated among the remaining candidates. This procedure would be repeated until a candidate received a majority of votes.
The unexpected result of using this voting method was the election of enough candidates of a new party,
Social CreditThe British Columbia Social Credit Party, whose members are known as Socreds, was the governing political party of British Columbia, Canada, for more than 30 years between the 1952 provincial election and the 1991 election...
(also known as “SoCreds”). This resulted in the SoCreds forming a
minority governmentA minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when the governing political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament. It is also known as a hung parliament...
, with the CCF forming the
official oppositionParliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e...
. The Liberals were reduced to four members in the
LegislatureThe Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....
. The Conservatives (who changed their name to
“Progressive Conservative”The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and a centrist stance on social issues....
in tandem with their federal counterparts) were reduced to three.
The SoCred minority government lasted only nine months. The alternate voting system was again employed for the resulting general election. The result was a SoCred majority. During this term of office, the SoCreds abolished the new voting system and returned the province to the traditional voting system.
Electoral reform became an issue again in the 1990s, particularly after the NDP was re-elected in the
1996 electionThe British Columbia general election of 1996 was the thirty sixth provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 30, 1996, and held on May 28, 1996...
. While the NDP won a majority of seats, the opposition Liberals had won a larger share of the popular vote. After the Liberals won the
2001 electionThe British Columbia general election of 2001 was the 37th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 18, 2001, and held on May 16, 2001...
, they created the
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral ReformThe Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform is a group created by the government of British Columbia, Canada to investigate changes to the provincial electoral system...
.
The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform surprised many when it proposed an STV electoral model called
BC-STVBC-STV is a proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform for use in British Columbia, and belongs to the Single Transferable Vote family of voting systems. BC-STV was supported by a majority of the voters in a referendum held in 2005 but the government had...
and recommended it to the electorate. In the
ensuing electoral reform referendumthumb|Results map by ridingA referendum was held in the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 17, 2005 to determine whether or not to adopt the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform...
held on May 17, 2005, BC-STV achieved a majority 57.7% Yes support. However, this did not give it the 60% province-wide support set as a requirement by
the governmentThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
(
British Columbia Liberal PartyThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
) for the referendum outcome to be automatically binding. Nevertheless, the simple majorities in 77 ridings (of 79) far exceeded the 48 ridings that was also a requirement set by
the governmentThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
(
British Columbia Liberal PartyThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
).
Due to the evident support for electoral reform, the re-elected
BC LiberalThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
government announced in the Throne Speech on September 12, 2005, that the public of British Columbia would get a second referendum on STV in November 2008. This was later rescheduled: the second referendum on electoral reform was then planned to be held in conjunction with the May 12, 2009 provincial general election. In the interim, the Electoral Boundaries Commission designed new boundaries for both FPTP and STV. Both supporting and opposing sides of the referendum campaign received government funding to help educate the public in time for the referendum.
In contrast to the 2005 vote, which saw 57.7% of voters in favour of STV, the STV initiative was then defeated on May 12, 2009 with only 39% of voters in support.
Other provinces
- Alberta: STV was used in the Calgary
Calgary was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada that existed from 1905 to 1913 and was recreated from 1921 to 1959. The district returned from one to six members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta...
and EdmontonEdmonton provincial electoral district existed in two incarnations from 1905 - 1909 and again from 1921 - 1955. The district was created when Alberta first became a province....
and Medicine HatMedicine Hat is an Albertan provincial electoral district, covering most of the city of Medicine Hat.Under the Alberta electoral boundary re-distribution of 2004, the constituency covers the portion of the city north of the South Saskatchewan River, the Trans-Canada Highway and Carry Drive...
ridings of the province of AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
from 1926 to 1955. All other electoral districts used instant-runoff votingInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
. In 1955 all districts were changed to First Past the Post.
- Manitoba: Provincial elections in Manitoba
Manitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
were conducted partly by STV from the 1920s until 1958: the city of WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, in south central Canada, near the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers...
elected ten members in this manner. All other constituencies elected one member by instant-runoff votingInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
. Civic elections in Winnipeg were also conducted by STV.
Senate
Under the proposed Bill C-43 before the
Parliament of CanadaThe Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch represented by her Governor General the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
during the 39th Parliament - 1st Session
(April 3, 2006-Sept. 14, 2007)), STV would be used for consultative elections of Senators.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/legisinfo/index.asp?Language=E&query=4899&Session=14&List=toc
India
STV is not used for direct elections in India, but is used for the indirect election of most members of the
Rajya SabhaThe Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services. These members are known as nominated members...
, the upper house of the federal parliament. The Rajya Sabha consists of 250 members: twelve are nominated by the
President of IndiaThe President of India or Rashtrapati is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. In theory, the President possesses considerable power...
while the remainder are elected using STV by members of the legislatures of the states and the
union territoriesA Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...
. The number of members of the Rajya Sabha elected by each state and union territory is loosely proportionate to its population, such that, ,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
, with a population of 82 millions, is represented by 22 members, while
SikkimSikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayas. It is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest in area after Goa. The thumb-shaped state borders Nepal in the west, the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north and the east and Bhutan in the southeast...
, with a population of 540,000 is represented by just one member.
Malta
STV applies for all elections in
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
. However, top-up seats (similar to the
additional member systemThe Additional Member System is a branch of voting systems in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from a wider area, usually by party lists. Voters have two votes, one for the party and the second for the...
) may be added in the national parliament to ensure that a party with a majority of first-preference votes wins a majority of seats. This was a response to the controversial election in 1981 when the
Nationalist PartyThe Nationalist Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party. It was founded by Dr Fortunato Mizzi in 1880 as the Anti-Reform Party, opposing taxation decreed by the British colonial authorities and measures to Anglicise the educational and the...
won 51% of the first-preference vote but the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Nationalist Party. It is the party of opposition in the Maltese House of Representatives where it has thirty-four of the sixty-nine seats.- Party Structure :...
won a majority of the seats. Some subsequently accused Labour of having gerrymandered the 5-seat constituencies: 8 had narrowly split 3:2 in its favour, while 5 had more widely split 3:2 in favour of the Nationalists. The top-up rule was also invoked in 1987 for the benefit of the Nationalists and in 1996 for the benefit of the Labour Party.
The Maltese electorate largely does not take advantage of the cross-party voting opportunities provided by STV. Almost all voters give preferences to all the candidates from one of the two major parties, but do not give preferences to candidates from the other party. Third parties, meanwhile, get minimal support. The effect of this voting pattern is similar to a tight two-party
open listOpen list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected...
PR system simultaneously using STV within each party to decide its representatives whilst using the indicated first preference candidate's party as the voter's preferred party. Because of the transfer behaviour of the voters, each party can stand many more candidates than there are winners in total without being adversely affected. Strangely, some candidates stand and are elected in more than one constituency, leading to vacancies filled by countback.
New Zealand
In
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
STV is used in elections to small number of local authorities and in all elections for District Health Boards. The count is conducted using Meek's method. District Health Boards consist of a mixture of appointed and elected members. The vast majority of local authorities use
plurality at largePlurality-at-large voting, commonly referred to as block voting or bloc voting, is a voting system for electing several representatives from a single multimember electoral district using a series of check boxes and tallying votes similar to a plurality election...
(bloc voting) instead of STV. Current use of STV was introduced by the Local Electoral Act 2001 and began with elections to local councils and District Health Boards in
October 2004October 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
See also: October 2004 in sports-Events:...
During the twentieth century STV was used for elections to the
Christchurch City CouncilThe Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch City in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. the Mayor of Christchurch is Bob Parker, who stood as an independent....
in 1917, 1929, 1931 and 1933, and for
Woolston Borough CouncilWoolston is a light industrial and residential suburb of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated three kilometres southeast of the city centre, close to major arterial routes including State Highways 73 and 74 to Banks Peninsula. The Heathcote River flows through the...
in 1917 and 1919. In business,
FonterraFonterra is New Zealand’s largest multinational company with revenue exceeding NZD $19.5 billion. It is a co-operative that is owned by over 11,000 farmers. The company controls around 30% of the world's dairy exports- History :...
used STV for their Board of Directors and Shareholders' Council elections in 2002. The Local Electoral Act 2001 provided that STV was mandatory for District Health Board elections but offered local councils the choice of either staying with plurality at large or changing to STV. It also provided for a binding poll of voters in an area to be held to determine the which system would be used, either at the initiative of the council or by a
citizen's initiativeIn political science, the initiative provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment or ordinance, or, in its minimal form, to simply oblige the executive or...
instigated by voters in an area. In practice very few local authorities adopted STV under the Act's provisions, and in those that did the use of STV was plagued by poor explanations of the STV process, which often gave little more information than an algorithmic description of how to place a vote. This left the unfortunate impression among voters that STV was little more than a gratuitously complex equivalent to existing voting mechanisms. Nonetheless New Zealand made history by becoming the first country in the world to use the advanced Meek's method of STV.
In the 2004 elections 81 STV elections occurred, but two were not contested. Confusion was caused by the fact that some local elections included ballots for multiple local government bodies, some of which were conducted by single-winner plurality ('first past the post'), some by plurality at large, and some by STV. An example of the confusion among voters was one result from the 2007 elections, in which the first place went to blank or incomplete voting forms and the fourth place went to incorrectly filled-out forms. The actual candidates came in at places two and three . Due to low voter turnout, the high number of spoilt votes and the long time taken for results to be declared, the Justice and Electoral Committee of the New Zealand Parliament has undertaken an inquiry into the use of STV in New Zealand.
United Kingdom
STV is not used for elections to the
UK ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
at
WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
but is used for all
AssemblyThe Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...
, European and local government elections in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and for local elections in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. In Northern Ireland, Assembly elections involve six-seat constituencies, while local elections currently use constituencies of between five and seven seats. For European elections Northern Ireland serves as a single three-seat constituency. Local elections in Scotland use constituencies of three or four seats. All official STV elections in the UK use the Gregory method of counting votes.
STV is also used by many private organisations. For example, it is used in many British university
students' unionA students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges, universities and has started to appear in some high schools...
s (and promoted by the
National Union of StudentsNational Union of Students may refer to:*National Union of Students of Australia*National Union of Students in Canada*Austrian National Union of Students*Danish National Union of Students*Dutch National Union of Students...
as the fairest way of running elections), for all elections within the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
and for electing board members in
The Co-operative GroupThe Co-operative Group is a United Kingdom consumers' co-operative, and, after the acquisition of Somerfield supermarkets, is the world's largest consumer-owned business, with over 4.5 million members and 87,000 employees across all its businesses...
.
As noted above, because it was invented by the Englishman Thomas Hare and has been used in many parts of the former British Empire, STV has in the past been referred to as "British proportional representation". Nonetheless it has never been used by more than a handful of constituencies in the British Parliament. In 1917, the Speaker's Conference in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
advocated the adoption of STV for 211 of the 569 constituencies in the UK, and
instant-runoff votingInstant-runoff voting is the American English term for a voting system used for single-winner elections, in which voters rank candidates in an order of preference...
for the rest. Although the
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
voted in favour of the proposals five times, the House of Lords continually rejected it until the nationwide effort was ultimately abandoned in parliament. Nonetheless in 1918 STV was adopted for the university constituencies of
CambridgeCambridge University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Election Systems:...
,
OxfordOxford University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Electoral System:...
,
Combined English UniversitiesCombined English Universities was a university constituency represented in the United Kingdom Parliament . It was formed by enfranchising and combining all the English Universities, except for Cambridge, Oxford and London, which were already separately represented.-Boundaries:This University...
, Combined Scottish Universities and Dublin University; these constituencies continued to use STV until their abolition in 1950 (or 1922 in the case of Dublin University). STV was also introduced for local elections in the Irish borough of
SligoSligo , is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is the second largest urban area in Connacht . It is home to the Sligo Institute of Technology and St...
in 1918, and extended to all Irish local government shortly afterwards.
In 1921 the UK government attempted to establish two
home ruleHome rule is where constituent parts of a state are given greater self-government within the administrative purview of the central government....
parliaments in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
–the
Parliament of Southern IrelandThe Parliament of Southern Ireland was set up during the Irish War of Independence under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, evolving out of the Home Rule Act 1914, to legislate for "Southern Ireland", a political entity envisaged by the British Government which never became fully functioned as...
and the
Parliament of Northern IrelandThe Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which existed from 22 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
–with the
Irish general elections of 1921Two elections in Ireland took place in 1921, as a result of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 to establish the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. The election was used by Irish Republicans as the basis of membership of the Second Dáil...
, both of which were conducted using STV. The intention of using STV in Ireland was partly to ensure adequate representation for the Catholic minority in the North and the Protestant minority in the South. Southern Ireland seceded from the UK in 1921 but today, as the
Republic of IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
, continues to use STV for all of its elections. The Northern Ireland Parliament continued to use STV until the late 1920s when it switched to the first past the post plurality system. However STV was reintroduced there after the imposition of direct rule in 1973, and is now in use for all elections except those to Westminster.
In Scotland, following the passage of the
Local Governance (Scotland) ActThe Local Governance Act 2004 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which provided, inter alia, for the election of Councillors to the local authorities in Scotland by the Single Transferable Vote system....
on 23 June, 2004, all local governments have used STV to elect their councillors since 2007. In
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
, the Richard Commission recommended in March 2004 changing the electoral system for the
National Assembly for WalesThe National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...
to the Single Transferable Vote. However, in the white paper
Better Governance for Wales published on 15 June, 2005, the UK Government, without giving reasons, rejected Richard's recommendation to change the electoral system.
United States
, the only official governing bodies that use STV to elect representatives are the City Council and School Committee of
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
. However STV enjoyed a period of popularity in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the first half of the twentieth century.
Twenty-two American cities have used STV for local elections. It was used for the election of the nine member City Council of
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was estimated to be 333,336 in 2008, making it the state's third largest city...
from 1924 to 1957, and was also used in
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
and
Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
.
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
adopted STV in 1936 as a method for breaking the corrupt
political machineA political machine is a disciplined political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters , who receive rewards for their efforts...
of
Tammany HallTammany Hall , was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s...
dominating the city and used it for five elections in 1937 to 1945. Reform opponents regularly challenged STV after its successes. Only two of the first 24 repeal efforts in cities around the nation were successful, but after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, harsh campaigns against STV were successfully carried out after African-Americans and political minorities such as Communists and urban
RepublicansThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
began winning seats, even though they only constituted a minority group in government. After STV's removal and subsequent reversion to the current FPTP in New York in 1947, the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
immediately regained near unanimous control of municipal elections with Tammany Hall quickly returning to political dominance until its ultimate downfall in the mid
1960sThe 1960s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1960, to December 31, 1969.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France,...
. STV has also been used in the election of New York City community school board members.
Today there are campaigns in some cities to introduce STV.
Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities,...
voted in 2006 to adopt STV for certain city elections starting in 2009, while Davis, California passed an advisory referendum to use STV for future city council elections. The community
school boardSchool Board may refer to the education arrangements in different parts of the United Kingdom:* School board * School board...
s of the City of New York used STV until the school boards themselves were abolished in 2002. The city of
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
in 1996 considered multimember STV in a
referendumA referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal...
; this effort failed, with the city instead voting for district elections and, in 2002, adopting instant runoff voting. Cincinnati also narrowly failed to restore STV for city council elections in citizen initiatives in 1988 and 1991.
The Single Transferable Vote has become increasingly used at American
universitiesA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
for student elections. , the schools of Harvard,
PrincetonPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
, UC Berkeley, UC Davis,
VassarVassar may refer to:* Vassar College, liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA* Matthew Vassar , American brewer and merchant, founder of Vassar College* Phil Vassar , American country music artist...
,
ReedReed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a four-year residential college with a campus located in Portland's residential Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a...
, and
Whitman-People:* Whitman , including:** Walt Whitman, notable American essayist and poet-Places:In the United States:* Whitman, Massachusetts* Whitman, Nebraska* Whitman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a neighborhood* Whitman County, Washington-Education:...
all use STV, and several other universities are considering its adoption.
NGOs
Many non-governmental organisations also use STV. Most Australian political parties, unions and peak business organisations use STV. All
National Union of Students of the United KingdomThe National Union of Students is the main confederation of students' unions that exist inside the United Kingdom. Although the NUS is the central organisation for all affiliated unions in the UK, there are also the devolved national sub-bodies NUS Scotland in Scotland, NUS Wales in Wales and...
, Cambridge Union, and
Oxford UnionThe Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, UK, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
elections and those of their constituent members are under the system. It is used as well by ESIB – The National Unions of Students in Europe. It is used in several political parties for internal elections such as the British Liberal-Democrats and all the British Green Parties. It is also used to elect members of the
General Synod of the Church of England-Church of England:In the Church of England, the General Synod, which was established in 1970 , is the legislative body of the Church.-Episcopal Church of the United States:...
. The
UK Royal Statistical SocietyThe Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK. It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London . At that time there were many provincial statistics societies throughout Britain, but most have not survived...
uses STV with the Meek method to elect their council. Some
UnitarianUnitarianism as a theology is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity ....
Church groups have used Single Transferable Vote to select projects for funding. The US-Based
Pacifica RadioPacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a network of over 100 affiliated stations and five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its liberal and progressive political orientation. Many other U.S. and...
Network uses STV to elect its station governing boards.
The
Object Management Group (OMG)Object Management Group is a consortium, originally aimed at setting standards for distributed object-oriented systems, and is now focused on modeling and model-based standards.- Overview :...
uses STV for their Architecture Board (AB) elections.
The selection of nominees for
Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
is via an STV ballot of the members of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures....
. Differences from STV are that voters may only rank five as many choices as nominees (five for most categories, with ten for best picture), and that at least one first preference is required for a candidate to be successful. Selection of a winner from among the nominees is done using plurality voting.