At the Students' Union, we use a voting system called preferencial voting or alternative voting. This means that you don't just select one candidate, but number the candidates based on the order in which you would like them to be elected.
Why do we use preferencial voting?
Preferencial voting is meant to stop a hung vote, meaning that someone always has the majority of votes. If a majority hasn't been achieved in the first 'round', then the candidate with the lowest votes from the election, and their votes are transfered to the voter's second choices.
Let's demonstrate how this can work.
Elections with One Post (i.e. Officer Elections)
Assuming that 100 votes were cast in total, so a candidate will have the majority with 51 votes.
Someone is elected in the first round
- Candidate A - 12
- Candidate B - 7
- Candidate C - 73
- Candidate D - 8
In this case, Candidate C has the majority, so would be elected.
No one is elected in the first round
- Candidate A - 36 votes
- Candidate B - 34 votes
- Candidate C - 16 votes
- Candidate D - 14 votes
No one is elected, as no one has reached majority. Candidate D, who has the lowest votes, is removed from the election. All of the votes are then transfered to the voters second choice.
- Candidate A - 42 (+6 votes from Candidate D)
- Candidate B - 41 (+7 votes from Candidate D)
- Candidate C - 17 (+1 votes from Candidate D)
Again, no one has hit the quota, so we remove Candidate C.
- Candidate A - 48 (+6 votes from Candidate C)
- Candidate B - 52 (+11 votes from Candidate C)
Candidate C is elected for the majority.
However, this method can continue until someone has reached a majority.
Elections with Multiple Posts (i.e. Academic Representation)
When running these elections, the count follows the following structure:
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As an example:
This election has 2 places. 100 votes have been cast, so the majority is 34. This is because the quota for the election is [votes cast]/(number of places+1) so in this case 100/(2+1). This is then rounded up to 34.
- Candidate A - 4 votes
- Candidate B - 14 votes
- Candidate C - 62 votes
- Candidate D - 20 votes
In the first round, Candidate C can be elected.
We then transfer the surplus votes to the remaining candidates. The surplus is the remaining votes after the Candidate has hit the quota. In this case, that's 62-34, so 28 votes total.
These votes are counted as a percentage, however. This is the number of votes of quota divided by the total number of votes (in this case, 28/62). This means each transfered vote is worth 0.45.
- Candidate A - 7.6 votes (+ 8 votes from Candidate B, totalling 3.6)
- Candidate B - 34.7 (+ 46 votes, totalling 20.7)
- Candidate D - 23.6 votes (+ 8 votes, totalling 3.6)
With those extra votes, Candidate B now has majority and can be elected into the second position.
If no one is elected in the first round, it function as above, with candidates being excluded until someone has the majority of votes.
What about R.O.N. (Re-open nominations)?
At Leicester, we follow the NUS model for R.O.N.
This means that R.O.N. works in the same way as the candidates - if they get more votes than the other candidates currently in the running, they will take that place. The election will then continue, with R.O.N being reentered into the election without the votes required for majority.
For example, saying the majority needed is 51 votes and R.O.N. has 60. Once R.O.N. has been elected to that post, it will then be reentered into the election with the remaining 9 votes as its total.
R.O.N. doesn't have to be your first choice either. If you feel Candidate A and B are good choices, but C, D and E are not, you can put R.O.N. as your third choice after A and B.
What if I don't want to vote for the other candidates? Can I just pick 1 choice?
Yes! You can pick as many choices as you want, and then submit your vote. This doesn't mean you have to put every candidate into your preferences.
In terms of voting, this makes the majority total lower for the next round of candidates, as there are less votes available.