whowonpoll00HOW A WINNER IS COUNTED
With two candidates, the majority wins. With three or more, it depends how you count.
Voting theorists have argued about this since the 18th century. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy shows one set of 21 ballots where three sensible rules pick three different winners.
Try the counting rules01Principles
02THE SHORT ANSWER
UK elections use more than one counting rule.
Each one answers "who won?" in its own way.
FIRST PAST THE POST
MPs are elected by first past the post: you vote once and the candidate with the most votes wins. GOV.UK lists the same rule for mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Try the counting rulesRANKED BALLOTS
Councillors in Scotland and Northern Ireland are elected by the Single Transferable Vote. You rank candidates in order of preference, and the lowest are removed and their votes passed on.
How a ranked count worksTIES
If a UK Parliamentary count ends level, the law says the returning officer decides by lot and treats the winner of the draw as having one extra vote.
See the numbersGeneral information only, not legal advice. For advice on your own situation, speak to a qualified lawyer or a free advice service.
03ONE SET OF BALLOTS
Twenty-one voters rank four candidates, A to D. Pick a counting rule to see who wins. The bar shows how much of each voter's ranking the rule uses.
The ballots: 3 voters rank A, B, C, D; 5 rank A, C, B, D; 7 rank B, D, C, A; 6 rank C, B, D, A. Example from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on voting methods.
04TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
One number from a 21-voter example,
one from a classic voting puzzle.
13 of 21
Voters who rank the plurality winner last
A tops more ballots than any rival, 8 of 21, so wins on most first choices. But more than half the voters put A last, and A loses every one-on-one contest.
PLURALITY · SEP EXAMPLE
3 voters
Voters in the textbook majority cycle
With three voters and three candidates, A beats B, B beats C and C beats A, each by 2 votes to 1. No candidate beats all the others.
CONDORCET PARADOX
Borda observed in the 18th century that plurality rule can elect the candidate who loses to every rival head to head. Both examples are from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
05HOW A RANKED COUNT WORKS
Moray Council's worked example of a Single Transferable Vote by-election shows the steps for one seat and four candidates.
Put 1 by your favourite, 2 by your next and so on. You can number as many or as few candidates as you like.
Each candidate's first preferences are counted and compared with the quota, the number of votes needed to be elected.
If nobody reaches the quota, the candidate with the fewest votes is removed and their ballots go to each voter's next preference.
Ballots with no further preference become non-transferable. The stages continue until the seat is filled.
06AN OLD ARGUMENT
The two founding fathers of voting theory, Jean-Charles de Borda and the Marquis de Condorcet, disagreed in the 18th century about who should win when voters rank several candidates.
Condorcet backed the candidate who beats every rival one on one. Borda looked at the size of each win or loss. The Stanford Encyclopedia says the debate is still not settled, and that with more than two candidates there may be no single obvious winner.
07Questions
By first past the post. GOV.UK says you vote once for a candidate in your constituency, and the candidate with the most votes becomes your MP.
GOV.UK says councillors in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Northern Ireland Assembly members, are elected by the Single Transferable Vote, where you rank the candidates in order of preference.
No. Moray Council's guide says you can number as many or as few as you like. If your ballot has no further preference when it is needed, it becomes non-transferable.
For UK Parliamentary elections, the Representation of the People Act 1983 says the returning officer decides between them by lot after any recount, and proceeds as if the winner of the draw had one extra vote.
Yes. In the Stanford Encyclopedia's example, A has the most first places but 13 of 21 voters rank A last, and A loses every head-to-head contest.
08Sources
ABOUT THIS NAME
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