The Students’ Union’s annual March elections and October by-elections operate using a Transferable Voting system.
The Alternative Transferable Voting system (ATV) is used to elect a single candidate for a position (e.g. to elect each of the officers on the Union’s executive committee). The Single Transferable Voting system (STV) is used to elect multiple candidates for a position (e.g. to elect 8 student representatives to attend an NUS conference).
Why we use the Transferable Voting system:
Parliamentary Elections use the ‘first past the post’ system, which gives each voter a single vote. With this type of system, a candidate is elected simply by coming top of the poll. The result of the election could look like this:
| Candidate A | 9,999 votes |
| Candidate B | 10,000 votes |
| Candidate C | 9,500 votes |
| Candidate D | 8,000 votes |
Candidate B is first past the post and will be elected to represent that constituency, despite the fact that 27,499 people did not want him to be their representative and chose another candidate. Their votes are, in effect, wasted.
The Transferable Voting system, however, allows each voter the fullest freedom of choice between candidates, and therefore the maximum use of their vote. When used properly, it works to elect the least unpopular candidate.
How the system works, and how we count your votes:
With the Transferable Voting system, each voter is asked to rank the candidates in order of personal preference.
For example, a completed ballot slip might look like this:
| Candidate A | 1 |
| Candidate B | 4 |
| Candidate C | |
| Candidate D | 2 |
| Re-Open Nominations (RON) | 3 |
At the close of voting, all the completed ballot forms are counted and allocated to each candidate according to the first preference indicated.
The Returning Officer for the election then declares the total number of valid votes, and the required quota. The quota is simply the minimum number of votes a candidate must gain in order to be sure of election. For single posts, the quota is a simple majority; the successful candidate must gain at least 50% of the total number of valid votes, plus one.
When more than two candidates are running for the same position, it is unlikely that a single candidate will achieve this quota. In this case, at the end of the first round of counting, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and each of their votes is re-allocated to the next expressed preference on that ballot slip.
If, at the end of this second round of counting, the required quota has still not been achieved by any of the remaining candidates, then the process is repeated. The candidate with the least number of total votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to the next indicated preference.
This process of elimination and redistribution is repeated until a candidate either achieves the required quota of 50% of the valid number of votes plus one, or until the final round, where only two candidates remain. In this case, the candidate with the highest number of total votes will be elected.
