Counting single transferable votes

The single transferable vote (STV) is a proportional representation voting system that elects multiple winners. It is one of several ways of choosing winners from ballots that rank candidates by preference. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to their most-preferred candidate. Candidates are elected (winners) if their vote tally reaches quota. After this 1st Count, if seats still remain open, surplus votes are transferred from winners to remaining candidates (hopefuls) according to the surplus ballots' next usable back-up preference. if no surplus votes have to be transferred, then the least-popular candidate is eliminated so the vote has chance to be placed on a candidate who can use it.

The system reduces "wasted" votes and by ensuring that each successful candidate was elected with the same (or close to the same) number of votes, the system produces approximately proportional representation without the use of party lists. A variety of algorithms (methods) carry out these transfers.