What's an STV?

On the May provincial election ballots, there will be a referendum question asking for your support for a new electoral system called single-transferable vote. It's complicated on first glance, but don't dismiss it quickly: take a moment to understand how it works, and you may be impressed with the implications

by Ryan Fugger

In the 1996 BC election, the NDP won a majority of seats even though the Liberals received more votes province-wide. In the subsequent 2001 election, the Liberals won virtually every seat despite being opposed by over 40% of voters. So, in the wake of these strange results, BC put the task of reforming its electoral system in the hands of regular citizens, something no other jurisdiction on the planet has ever dared to do.

The 160 randomly-selected volunteer members of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform worked diligently to educate themselves and listen to public submissions. Despite initial predictions from some quarters that they could never reach a consensus on such a difficult issue, the Assembly overwhelmingly voted to recommend we replace our current system with something called BC-STV.

Now the question of whether to adopt the new STV system will be presented to voters in a referendum on the May 17 th provincial election ballot. While the political pundits settle into a pattern of heckling one another over their support or opposition to STV, one question remains in the minds of everyone else:

What's an STV?

STV stands for Single Transferable Vote, and it comes with two striking differences from the current system:

Ridings will be larger, and multiple MLAs will be elected in each riding. The new ridings will be formed by essentially joining together existing single-member ridings, which keeps the same overall number of MLAs in the province. Sparser, rural STV ridings will elect two or three members to keep them at a manageable size, and denser, urban STV ridings will elect as many as seven. For example, the five existing East Vancouver ridings would likely be merged to form a single STV district that would elect five MLAs. Each party could run multiple candidates in the new larger ridings.

Voters will rank candidates by numbering them on the ballot. This doesn't mean that each voter gets multiple votes. Rather, the STV preferential ballot tells vote counters in which order to transfer one's single vote from candidate to candidate during a counting process that maximizes the potential of each ballot.

Why elect more than one member per riding?

In a single-member riding, only the most popular party in that riding can elect its candidate. Multiply this across the province, and many significant voices can be systematically excluded from the legislature. This phenomenon led to the strange outcomes in BC in 1996 and 2001, where the voters did not seem to get the set of representatives they asked for.

Even the most popular party's voters can be poorly represented by MLAs who feel their seat is “safe” because their supporters have no other options but to vote for them. Frequently the election is decided at that party's nomination meeting. Allowing multiple candidates from each party to run in the same riding can eliminate those safe seats.

Any system that wishes to deliver a more proportional share of MLAs to each party or group of voters must, on some level, allow for multiple winners from each pool of ballots. However, as we know from Vancouver city council elections, simply electing multiple members in one large district is not enough to guarantee each group of voters its fair share of representatives—there needs to be a fair counting formula.

Why rank candidates instead of just marking an X?

A preferential ballot makes sure that as many ballots as possible go towards actually electing an MLA. A ballot counts initially for its first preference, but if the first preference doesn't have enough votes to be elected, the ballot will be transferred to its second preference, and so on.

The Citizens' Assembly hopes that this will give small-party candidates and independents a fair chance at winning, and reduce negative campaigning between similar candidates and parties by eliminating vote-splitting. For voters, this means that they do not have to worry about wasting their vote on unpopular candidates.

Surplus Transfers

When multiple candidates are being elected in the same riding, a fair counting system has the extra onus of ensuring that each winner is elected by the same number of voters. To see why, imagine a five-member riding in which 60% of people vote for a very popular candidate from Party A, but the other 40% of votes are spread equally among four candidates from Party B. Without somehow redistributing the most popular candidate's excess votes, four of the top five vote-getters will be from Party B. A fair result would be three seats for Party A and only two for Party B.

To achieve that fair result, the excess support from a candidate with more than enough to get elected must move on to other preferred candidates. One way to do this is to select some of the ballots to move on, and others to stay. But why should some ballots be treated differently than others in the same boat? Instead, BC-STV moves a fraction of the value of every ballot in an elected candidate's pile to its next preference. That way, winners keep only the bare minimum of votes they need, and voters do not have to worry about uselessly supporting a very popular candidate.

The Big Picture

The Citizens' Assembly recommended BC-STV not just to give parties their fair share of seats, but, more importantly, to give voters the ability to select a set of MLAs empowered to stand up and speak for the diverse voices in the province. Taken together, STV's multi-member ridings, preferential ballot, and procedure for transferring votes will force candidates for the first time both to compete with other candidates from their own party, and to reach out to supporters of other parties to try to win their second preferences.

On May 17 th , the voters of BC will decide whether to keep the status quo or to give the proposed new system a chance to live up to its expectations. See citizensassembly.bc.ca and bc-stv.ca and stvforbc.com and fairvotingbc.com for additional information.

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