Electoral System: Single Transferable Vote

This is one of three separate pages about STV on this proportional representation site, highlighting the central role it has played, and does still play, in the effort to steer the US away from its winner-take-all dependency. The content you'll find here is largely about the workings of the system, including some fairly fine-grained mechanical analyses, but that's all part of what contributes to the fair and proportional results in an STV election: a majority of the voters electing a majority of the representatives, and a cohesive minority being able to elect representatives in proportion to the votes they win. For an overview of STV, including where it is used, and case histories, see STV in Electoral Systems.

Much of the material on this page comes from Cambridge, befitting the long use of STV/PR there, and the availability of digital ranking records since computerization in 1997. There's also information about implementation, as there are certain factors that must be addressed when considering new adoptions of STV/PR. Other material dates back to my early explorations of past use in my own city of Worcester, and information that could be used for future use there or elsewhere. See PR Cities for more historical overview on STV's twentieth century use.

STV/PR has gone by many names, including proportional ranked choice voting, used here occasionally as well.

Return to Electoral Systems: Navigating the Maze

STV: Beating the _shoo-in effect_ with surplus transfers (1).pdf
A divided electorate_ Block voting, to STV.pdf
Non-reciprocal ethnic cohesion in STV rankings.pdf
STV_PR doesn’t affect incumbency reelection rates.pdf
STV_ How important is the “T”_.pdf
The number of rankings voters mark on their STV ballots.pdf
Computerizing a Cambridge Tradition.pdf
Less than 8% of voters bullet vote in these STV elections; here's where they happen
Projecting relative campaign costs for two different electoral systems.pdf
Worc, Technically Speaking (1959 School Committee example).pdf
Thresholds and Flow Charts, IRV_STV.pdf
PR thresholds & Worcester at-large races, 2011-2019
Worc, 1953 School Committe analysis with result pages.pdf
RCV Implementation in Amherst: Information and Resources