Constitution of The Republic

ARTICLE II: Form of government

B-2) The Hare/STV system of elections

NOTE: This section has been considerably re-organized from the original version, no significant change of content; but I find splitting it into two chapters is a better organization.

    Members of Parlaiment and the Republic Council shall be elected by the Hare (STV) system of proprortional representation:

    1. In each election each voter shall mark a "1" next to their first choice, a "2" next to their second choice, a "3" next to their third choice, etc. such that as many candidates as the voter cares to rank, or all options in the legislative case, are rank-ordered.

      Each ballot shall prominantly state the number of positions to be elected, after the word "rank" above the list of candidates, the number of candidates marked shall have no bearing on the validity of the ballot.

    2. The quota in all elections shall be one more than the number of votes in that race divided by the number of positions to be filled plus one i.e.. quota=(n/(m+1))+1. A surplus shall be defined as the number of votes in excess of the quota.
    3. If any candidate has a quota of the "1" vote in their district, or nationwide in a Council election, that candidate is automatically elected, In the event of more than one candidate having a surplus, the candidate with the largest surplus shall be elected first, then their votes redistributed as in section 5 (II.B2.5) below, then the unelected candidate with the largest surplus after that step elected repeating until all candidates with a quota or surplus have been elected.
    4. After a candidate is elected, a proportion of each "1" vote for them equal to the proportion of votes in surplus to that of total votes for the candidate shall be applied to the "2" vote of each voter.
    5. If no candidate receives a quota of the "1" votes, then the candidate with the fewest "1" votes is excluded, or in the legislative case, the candidate with the most last-place votes, and the votes for them cast instead for the voter's second choice, excluding candidates until someone wins.
    6. In either of the two above sections, if a voter's number "2" choice has already been excluded or elected, then substitute the voter's next valid choice in numerical order, no vote may be cast for a candidate whom the voter has not ranked. If a voter ranks two candidates equally, 1/2 of the remaining portion of the vote shall be credited to each.
    7. If, after the transferred votes have been added to the previous "1" votes, there is no new person elected, repeat the step in section 5 (II.B2.5) until another person is elected, repeat the step in section 4 (II.B2.4) each time a person is elected.
    8. Continue with the process until all votes have been spent or all candidates are elected.
Copyright 2000-2002 Jack Durst, Last modified 5/26/2002 11:00PM PDT