A decade has passed since the UK electorate rejected proposed reforms to the way elections to the House of Commons are conducted.
The proposal from the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition government to introduce Alternative Voting was rejected in a referendum by more than two thirds of those who voted. The turnout was low: just 42 per cent.
Alternative Voting is not a form of Proportional Representation, although one of its variants shares some similarities with the STV system. Instead of placing an ‘X’ beside the name of a preferred candidate, voters are asked to rank them in order of preference.
In AV elections, the candidates with the fewest votes are successively eliminated and their votes redistributed until one achieves more than 50% of the votes cast. In STV PR elections, a similar process is followed, except that instead of having one member per constituency, each parliamentary constituency would have between five and seven members. Candidates are elected when the votes they amass through transfers reaches a pre-determined quota.
The main problems (for some) with the STV system is that it creates super-constituencies and that it can take several days to tabulate the results.
AV was proposed as a compromise because it kept the link with constituencies, although again it would have taken longer to add up the votes.
But what if there was a simple system were results were easily tabulated, was proportional and fairer, kept the strong bond with individual constituencies, and depended on voters expressing a single preference? That is, voting in the normal way with an ‘X’ and adding up the votes to see who wins.
The system used for European Elections in most of the UK when we were members of the European Union bears some resemblance to what I am proposing, but it is completely different.
The system I’d like to see is called Regionally Transferable Voting or RTV. It is so simple that any First Past the Post election can be quickly converted into RTV. It is essentially an Open List system where the electorate, not political parties, rank candidates.
In RTV, we keep single member constituencies but between five and seven constituencies will usually be grouped together into an Electoral Region, similar to the multi-member constituency used by STV.
The candidates of a political party in each region would be grouped together in a List. However, instead of the political party deciding their position on the List, the voters would do the ranking.
In RTV, the position on a List is determined by the proportion of a vote a candidate receives in the election in the constituency in which they stand for election.
Imagine there are five constituencies in an electoral region. The Carpetbaggers party stands in all five constituencies. The party’s share of the vote is as follows:
- West City : 22%
- Central City: 38%
- East City: 27%
- Northern Suburbs: 41%
- Southern Suburbs: 39%
That would mean that in this election, the candidates on the Carpet Baggers List would be elected in this order: Northern Suburbs, Southern Suburbs, Central City, East City, and finally West City.
Seats would be allocated on a regional basis using a modified d’Hondt system. So this would mean instead of electing the person with the greatest number of votes in each constituency, we would elect those who obtained a quota, a bit like STV.
Have a look at these results from our Imaginary Electoral Region:
| East City | % | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | List Position |
| Grave Diggers Party | Amanda Blue | 29,980 | 43.342 | 1 |
| Loveless | George Fox | 19,983 | 28.889 | 4 |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 13,898 | 20.092 | 4 |
| Independent | Ken Dodd | 5310 | 7.677 | 3 |
| Total Votes Cast | 69171 | |||
| Central City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | List Position |
| Grave Diggers Party | Phil Green | 25,456 | 42.914 | 2 |
| Loveless | Sandra Mason | 20,196 | 34.046 | 2 |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 12,322 | 20.772 | 3 |
| Independent | Ken Dodd | 1345 | 2.267 | 4 |
| Total Votes Cast | 59319 | |||
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | List Position |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 35.756 | 3 |
| Loveless | Mary Smith | 19,376 | 29.168 | 5 |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 22,991 | 34.609 | 1 |
| Independent | Ken Dodd | 310 | 0.467 | 5 |
| Total Votes Cast | 66430 | |||
| Northern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | List Position |
| Grave Diggers Party | Philomena Rich | 17,673 | 27.328 | 4 |
| Loveless | Fred Poor | 20,894 | 32.309 | 3 |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 11762 | 18.188 | 5 |
| Independent | Ken Dodd | 14340 | 22.174 | 1 |
| Total Votes Cast | 64669 | |||
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | List Position |
| Grave Diggers Party | Drew De’ Ath | 16,843 | 26.045 | 5 |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 28,326 | 43.802 | 1 |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | 28.392 | 2 |
| Independent | Ken Dodd | 5421 | 8.383 | 2 |
| Total Votes Cast | 68951 |
You may notice that some candidates are standing in multiple constituencies. RTV allows this because of the way votes are tabulated.
In RTV, we have an initial quota, and what I call a final quota.
The initial quota is calculated by dividing the total number of votes cast by one more than number of seats the Electoral Region. Then we add an additional vote. That means we divide the total votes cast by six and then add 1. This turns out to be 54,758.
The initial quota is used to eliminate those whose vote share is so low they have no chance of winning a seat. This is called the allocation threshold and is set at half a quota. Immediately we see that the independent candidate, Ken Dodd, is eliminated from all constituencies because of he failed to meet the allocation threshold.
| Total Votes | Priority | |
| Grave Diggers | 113,705 | 1 |
| Loveless | 108,775 | 2 |
| Panda Liberation | 79334 | 3 |
| Independent | 26726 | 4 |
| Votes Cast | 328540 | |
| Initial Quota | 54758 | |
| Allocation Threshold | 27379 | |
| Valid Lists | ||
| Grave Diggers | 113,705 | |
| Loveless | 108,775 | |
| Panda Liberation | 79334 | |
| Total Valid Votes | 301814 | |
| Final Quota | 50303 |
We now have to recalculate our Final Quota. This is done in the same way as before but excluding the votes for lists below the allocation threshold. This works out at just over 50,303 votes:
The party with the most votes is the Grave Diggers. So they have first go at winning a seat. None of their candidates has come anywhere near obtaining a quota in any seat. In order to do votes must be transferred from elsewhere in the Electoral Region. In this case means they must sacrifice their chances of winning in the seat where they performed most poorly and transfer the vote to their best placed constituency .
That’s because their performance of each candidate in a particular constituency determines their place on their party’s list.
How we iterate a list depends on the following rules:
- the party with the most valid votes gets to go first starting with its best performing seat.
- surpluses are distributed first
- spare votes come from eliminations of the candidate in its worst performing seat
- these eliminated seats are distributed after surpluses
- eliminations continue until the best performing candidate obtains a quota
- if a candidate obtains a quota, the other candidates in the constituency are eliminated and their votes transferred to the best performing candidate in their list
- an allocation round stops when no more seats can be allocated
- when a round stops the number of active votes is recalculated
Let’s put these rules into practice.
That means transferring votes from the Grave Diggers worst performing seat in the Southern Suburbs to their best in East City. This still doesn’t give them enough votes so we transfer their votes from the Northern Suburbs to East City.
This gives them enough votes to get their first candidate elected with a surplus which is then transferred to their second best candidate. The other candidates in that constituency are also eliminated and their votes transferred out. This how that would that scenario would play resulting in the election of Amanda Blue:
| First Round | ||||
| East City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Amanda Blue | 29,980 | ||
| Loveless | George Fox | 19,983 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 13,898 | ||
| Central City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Phil Green | 25,456 | ||
| Loveless | Sandra Mason | 20,196 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 12,322 | ||
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | ||
| Loveless | Mary Smith | 19,376 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 22,991 | ||
| Northern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Philomena Rich | 17,673 | ||
| Loveless | Fred Poor | 20,894 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 11762 | ||
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Drew De’ Ath | 16,843 | ||
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 28,326 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | ||
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Drew De’ Ath | ELIMINATED + VOTES Transferred to East City | 16843 | 0 |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 28,326 | 28326 | |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | 18361 | |
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 28,326 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | ||
| East City | Transfer from Southern Suburbs | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Amanda Blue | 29,980 | 16843 | 46823 |
| Loveless | George Fox | 19,983 | 19983 | |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 13,898 | 13898 | |
| Northern Suburbs | Elimination of Rich | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Philomena Rich | ELiminated +17,673 votes to East City | ||
| Loveless | Fred Poor | 20,894 | 20894 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 11762 | 11762 | |
| Northern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Loveless | Fred Poor | 20,894 | 20894 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 11762 | 11762 | |
| East City | Transfer from Northern Suburbs | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Amanda Blue | 46823 | 17673 | 64496 |
| Loveless | George Fox | ELIMINATED 19,983 Transferred to Southern Subs | ||
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | ELIMINATED 13,898 Transferred to WEST CITY | ||
| Bue has a surplus of | 14193 | Transferred to Central City | ||
| Central City | Transfer from East City | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Phil Green | 25,456 | 14193 | 39649 |
| Loveless | Sandra Mason | 20,196 | ||
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 12,322 | ||
| Southern Suburbs | Transfer from East City | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 28,326 | 19983 | 48309 |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | ||
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 48309 | 48309 | |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | 18361 | |
| West City | Transfer from East City | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Loveless | Mary Smith | 19,376 | 19376 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 22,991 | 13898 | 36889 |
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Loveless | Mary Smith | 19,376 | 19376 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 36889 | 36889 |
At this stage, we need to calculate which party has the right to the next seat. We can do this by simply looking at the remaining unallocated votes.
| Grave Diggers | 63402 | 3 |
| Loveless | 108775 | 1 |
| Panda Liberation | 79334 | 2 |
That means it’s the turn of the Loveless Party to try to gain a seat, since they have the greatest number of unallocated votes. So let’s look at the remaining seats after we transfer votes after the election of the East City seat. I have ordered them in terms of their position on the Loveless party list:
| Southern Suburbs |
| Central City |
| Northern Suburbs |
| East City |
| West City |
We will ignore East City because the party’s candidate has been eliminated there. First let’s look at Southern Suburbs Seat. But rules above then run continuously like so:
| Southern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Loveless | Phil Jones | 48309 | 48309 | |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing | 18,361 | 18361 | |
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Loveless | Mary Smith | 19,376 | 19376 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 36889 | 36889 | |
| 0 | ||||
| West City | Eliminationof Smith | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Loveless | Mary Smith | ELIIMINATED 19376 votes transferred to Southern Suburbs | 0 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 36889 | 36889 | |
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 36889 | 36889 | |
| Southern Suburbs | Transfer to Jones | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer | Total |
| Loveless | Phil Jones ELECTED | 48309 | 19376 | 67685 |
| Panda Liberation | Mason Bing ELIMINATED | 18,361 Votes transferred to West City | 0 | |
| Jones Surpus of | 17382 | Transferred to Central City | ||
| Central City | Transfer from Southern Subs | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Phil Green | 39649 | 0 | 39649 |
| Loveless | Sandra Mason | 20,196 | 17382 | 37578 |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 12,322 | 12322 | |
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown -Eliminated | 23,753 | 23753 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali Elected | 36889 | 18361 | 55250 |
| 0 | ||||
| West City | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | John Brown -Eliminated | 23,753 votes transferred to Central City | 0 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali Elected | 36889 | 18361 | 55250 |
| Hussein Ali Surplus of | 4947 | Votes transferred to Central City | ||
| Central City | Transfer from West City | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Grave Diggers Party | Phil Green Elected | 36649 | 25753 | 62402 |
| Loveless | Sandra Mason ELIM | 20,196 votes transferred to N suburbs | 0 | |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali ELIM | 12,322 | 4947 | 17269 |
| Surpluses to be transferred to Northern Suburbs | Green | 12099 | *Not possible because candidate | |
| Mason | 20196 | |||
| Ali | 17269 | |||
| Northern Suburbs | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Transfer In | Total |
| Loveless | Fred Poor Elected | 20,894 | 20196 | 41090 |
| Panda Liberation | Hussein Ali | 11762 | 17269 | 29031 |
The final results for the electoral region would be something like this. For comparison I’ve put the RTV results alongside the FPTP results
| Constituency | FPTP | RTV |
| East City | GD | GD |
| Central City | GD | GD |
| West City | GD | PL |
| North Suburbs | Lov | Lov |
| South Suburbs | Lov | Lov |