How are votes counted?

The NUS specifies that we should use transferable voting systems in our Elections. Often called ATV or STV , transferable voting is, essentially, preference voting. So the voter puts the candidates in order of preference rather than just indicating one candidate (as in the UK General Election). For each available position you will see a list of names. You vote by putting your preferred candidate as your number one choice, then adding your second choice and so on until you have no preference between the other candidates.

There is also an option to Re-open Nominations (R.O.N.). You can select this if you do not want any of the remaining candidates to take the post and would like to see nominations reopened.

The votes are then counted in stages with the candidate polling the lowest votes eliminated at each stage. The votes for an eliminated candidate are then transferred to their voters’ next preferences. So your vote keeps on working for you even if your first choice was eliminated at the first stage! This means that a candidate in first place after the first stage of counting is not guaranteed to win as those second, third, fourth (etc.) choices may make a difference. Many people argue that this is a better system, as it elects the least unpopular candidate. In the traditional first-past-the-post system, a candidate could win a five-way election with only 21% of the vote, even if 79% of the voters dislike him/her. In preference voting, that candidate would not necessarily win, as all the voters may agree that someone else would be a better compromise.