Single Transferable Vote

The Single Transferable Vote, or STV, is a preferential voting system designed to minimise wasted votes and provide proportional representation in multi-candidate elections while ensuring that votes are explicitly for candidates rather than party lists. STV systems achieve this by initially allocating an individual's vote to their most preferred candidate and then subsequently transferring unneeded or unused votes after candidates are either elected or eliminated according to the voter's stated preferences.

History

The concept of transferable voting was first proposed by Thomas Wright Hill in 1821. The system remained unused in real elections until 1855, when Carl Andrae proposed a transferable vote system for elections in Denmark. Andrae's system was used in 1856 to elect the Danish Rigsdag, and by 1866 it was also adapted for indirect elections to the second chamber, the Landsting, until 1915.

Related Topics:
Thomas Wright Hill - Carl Andrae - Denmark - Rigsdag - Landsting

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Although he was not the first to propose a system of transferable votes, the English barrister Thomas Hare is generally credited with the conception of Single Transferable Voting, and he may have independently developed the idea in 1857. Hare's view was that STV should be a means of "making the exercise of the suffrage a step in the elevation of the individual character, whether it be found in the majority or the minority." In Hare's original STV system, he further proposed that electors should have the opportunity of discovering which candidate their vote had ultimately counted for, to improve their personal connection with voting.{{ref|Lambert}} This is unnecessary in modern STV elections, however, as an individual voter can discover how their vote was ultimately distributed by viewing detailed election results.

Related Topics:
Barrister - Thomas Hare

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The noted political essayist, John Stuart Mill, was a friend of Hare and an early proponent of STV, praising it in his essay "On Representation." His contemporary, Walter Bagehot, also praised the Hare system for allowing everyone to elect an MP, even ideological minorities, but also added that the Hare system would create more problems than it solved: " is inconsistent with the extrinsic independence as well as the inherent moderation of a Parliament - two of the conditions we have seen, are essential to the bare possibility of parliamentary government."{{ref|Bagehot}}

Related Topics:
John Stuart Mill - Walter Bagehot

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STV spread through the British Empire, leading it to be sometimes known as British Proportional Representation. In 1896, Andrew Inglis Clark was successful in persuading the Tasmanian House of Assembly to be the first parliament in the world elected by what became known as the Hare-Clark system, named after himself and Thomas Hare.

Related Topics:
British Empire - Andrew Inglis Clark - Tasmanian House of Assembly

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Meek's version contained the innovation that electors could rank preferences equally, but this option has not been used.{{ref|Meek}}

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