This is the voting system in Ireland and though I have an understanding of it, I struggle to explain it to other people, or even to put it into words myself.
Would appreciate any simple explanation, plus what its pros and cons are.
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It’s also sometimes called an “instant run-off” election, because what happens is voters can list who they would vote for, in order of preference. In a run-off election, a new election is held because it is a requirement that a candidate get at least 50% of the vote, but in the previous election that didn’t happen, so we’re running a new election with the outright loser candidate(s) omitted.
50% of the vote is still required in an S.T.V but by having voters provide a preference list for who they would vote for, there is no need to have another election, as anybody who voted for an eliminated candidate just has their vote transferred to their 2nd pick, or 3rd, etc as the case may be. No second or third round of voting is required, the run-off election is just handled by the vote counters.
Note that only 1st place votes on each ballot counts (except for eliminated candidates during a “run-off”). If there were a candidate who got 100% of everyone’s 2nd place choice out of a group of possible candidates, you’d think they’d be a good choice for a winner… but the fact that they got 100% of 2nd place votes means they got 0% of 1st place votes and are the first to be eliminated. First preference on the ballot matters. Then again, the fact voting for an underdog is no longer a “wasted vote” since your vote can still be transferred to a 2nd choice means you don’t need to vote strategically either if there is a candidate you specifically hope loses.. If the majority of voters feels that way, then it shouldn’t be possible for that candidate to reach 50% at all by voting for everybody else in some order and never the candidate you most hate.
I hope that makes some sense…
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