So the Irish local and EU elections are currently counting, could someone explain to me specifically how the process when a candidate exceeds their wrote works? Like how the votes are distributed amongst the other candidates. Examples are welcome!
In: Other
There are many preferential voting systems. They all require the voters to rank their choices instead of choosing just one of them. This is used in Ireland for their “single transferable vote” system which have gained a lot of popularity in the world as an alternative to the classical voting systems. Say for example that you would preferably that a small extreme party would win. However you know that just a tiny group of people would agree with you. In a classical voting system your vote would have been better used voting for a popular moderate candidate as this would prevent the “other” side of the political spectrum to gather enough votes for their most popular candidate. However in Ireland with their STV system you can rank your preferred candidate highest. If it turns out that that candidate is not going to win then your vote automatically switches to your second preference, which might be a more popular extreme candidate. After a few more rounds of candidates being eliminated this candidate might also get eliminated and your vote is then for your third preference. This goes on until you have one candidate that gets most of the votes.
Latest Answers