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!
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So there’s a quota for how many votes someone needs to get to be elected, generally some percentage of the overall vote, like 25% plus one vote for a three-seat vote.
Let’s say we have a 1000 voter constituency with a three-seat vote, and Candidate A has obtained 300 votes. Since 251 votes is what’s necessary to be elected, there’s a surplus of 49 votes. 30% of Candidate A’s voters had Candidate B as their #2, while 70% of Candidate A’s voters had Candidate C, and 0% had Candidate D. The votes are split up amongst the candidates like this:
34 to Candidate B (70% of 49 is 34.3)
15 to Candidate C (30% of 49 is 14.7)
This is a simplified version of the process – if you want to read in depth about how votes are split (especially when there are multiple candidates who have exceeded the threshold), check out this article: https://www.thejournal.ie/how-does-prstv-work-2619448-Feb2016/
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