VIDEO: Single Transferable Vote (STV) explained
Here’s the new film from the Electoral Commission, explaining the Single Transferable Vote (STV). It is being used for the Scottish local elections:
Or for a CGP Grey version which does rather more to explain ‘but why is it done like that?’ watch here:
Having lived in a PR (proportional representation) state (RoI) most of my life, the above is useful for voters, but not enough for parties.
Voters choose candidates on various grounds: personality, ideology/party, locality, gender, for example. These voters’ subsequent preferences are up for grabs, as long as you have a suitable candidate for them.
So the more evenly votes are split amongst candidates of your party, the more leakage that will attract, the better their chance of election.
A party should have a ‘balanced ticket’ of candidates to attract as much leakage as possible, and nominate one more candidate than they expect to get elected,to benefit from any surge in the polls.
I hope that the above is not patronisingly simplistic, and a waste of your time ( and mine)