History and use of the Single Transferable Vote
Imagine that you and your friends are voting for your favorite ice cream flavor. In a normal election, whoever gets the most votes wins, even if not everyone liked their choice. But with the single transferable vote (STV), you get to rank your choices from favorite to least favorite.
For example, if 10 friends were voting and there were four flavors to choose from (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mint), each friend would write down their top choice on a piece of paper. If no flavor gets more than half the total votes, the flavor with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and the votes for that flavor are transferred to the remaining flavors based on the second choice of those voters. This keeps going until one flavor has more than half the total votes and is declared the winner.
The STV system has been used for political elections, especially in countries like Ireland and Australia. It allows voters to have more say in the outcome and promotes a more diverse range of candidates. So instead of just choosing one candidate, voters can rank their top choices and the one with the most support across multiple rounds of counting wins.
For example, if 10 friends were voting and there were four flavors to choose from (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mint), each friend would write down their top choice on a piece of paper. If no flavor gets more than half the total votes, the flavor with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and the votes for that flavor are transferred to the remaining flavors based on the second choice of those voters. This keeps going until one flavor has more than half the total votes and is declared the winner.
The STV system has been used for political elections, especially in countries like Ireland and Australia. It allows voters to have more say in the outcome and promotes a more diverse range of candidates. So instead of just choosing one candidate, voters can rank their top choices and the one with the most support across multiple rounds of counting wins.