Vote Types

Single motion voting (Yes/No/Abstain)

This is a simple tally vote. Voters can vote either Yes or No on an issue, or they can abstain. Votes are tallied, and the result is presented. It is up to the election committee to interpret the result.


Apache-style Single motion voting (Yes/No/Abstain with binding votes)

This is a simple tally vote. Voters can vote either Yes or No on an issue, or they can abstain, however certain people (committee members, for instance) may cast binding votes whereas others may only cast non-binding votes. Votes are tallied, and the result is presented. It is up to the election committee to interpret the result.


First Past the Post (presidential election style)

FPP is a voting system with multiple candidates. The candidate with the most votes will win, regardless of whether they received more than half the votes or not.


Single Transferable Vote

The single transferable vote (STV) system is designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat elections. It does so by allowing every voter one vote, that is transferable to other candidates based on necessity of votes and the preference of the voter. Thus, if a candidate in an election is voted in (or in case of a tie), excess votes are allocated to candidates according to the preference of the voter. STV is designed to minimize the 'wasted votes' in an election by reallocating votes (and thus the wishes of the voters) proportionally to their previous priority.

Please see the Wikipedia article on STV voting for more insight into how STV works.

For calculating result, we use Meek's Method with a quota derived from the Droop Quota but with implementation changes such as those proposed by New Zealand. See this paper for details.


D'Hondt (Jefferson) Voting

The D'Hondt method, also known as the Jefferson method, is a highest average method for calculating proportional representation of parties at an election. In essence, this is done by calculating a quotient per party for each number of seats available and finding the highest values. The quotient is determined as V/(s+1) where V is the number of votes received and s is the number of seats won. Thus, for each party, the quotient is calculated for the number of seats available:

Example result for election with 4 seats:

Party Votes 1 seat 2 seats 3 seats 4 seats seats won
Gnomes 25,000 25,000/(0+1) = 25,000 25,000/(1+1) = 12,500 25,000/(2+1) = 8,333 25,000/(3+1) = 6,250 2
Elves 15,000 15,000/(0+1) = 15,000 15,000/(1+1) = 7,500 15,000/(2+1) = 5,000 15,000/(3+1) = 3,750 1
Dwarves 10,000 10,000/(0+1) = 10,000 10,000/(1+1) = 5,000 10,000/(2+1) = 3,333 10,000/(3+1) = 2,500 1

For more information on the D'Hondt Method, see this Wikipedia article