Single transferable vote

Divya VK, Akhila NP, Amulya Arun

Guide: Professor Chandrakala G Raju

Abstract

STV aims to improve voter happiness by minimising the issues of negative

campaigning and strategic voting.

Under STV, a process of ranked voting is followed where a single vote is given
to the most preferred candidate.

The vote is transferred to other candidates according to the voter's stated

preferences, in proportion to any surplus or discarded votes.

The project aims to develop an application that implements STV which consist
of the functionalities of administrator and voter.

The tools involved in implementing this project involve HTML,CSS, JavaScript

and Jquery.

STV is considered to be complicated and time consuming, but it is currently

one of best voting practices available worldwide.

Literature Survey

According to 'New System for the Election of Council: The single transferable vote', published
in IEEE, brings out several disadvantages of current system :- The principal defect of non
transferable vote system lies in the equity of votes. However, the most serious defect is vote
wastage and the effect which knowledge of this vote wastage. All these anomalies can be
corrected by using STV.

According to 'Manipulability of Single Transferable Vote', Toby Walsh, published in IEEE, Sydney,
Australia- It also appears to be one of the harder rules to manipulate since it involves multiple
rounds and since, unlike many other rules, it is NP-hard for a single agent to manipulate without
weights on the votes or uncertainty about how the other agents have voted.

Algorithm 123 SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE BY MEEKS METHOD I. D. HILL , B. A. WICHMANN

and D. R. WOODALL 1987, Received 17 October 1985, in final form 13 May 1986 Most of the
methods are designed to be practicable when counting is by hand, and this necessarily enforces
simplicity even at the expense of not always getting the best possible answer.

http://www.hawaii.edu/uhmfs/documents/2010_11/20110216_reso_votingmethodscounting.pdf Droop quota is preferred because it is the only whole-number threshold for which (a) a majority
of the voters can be guaranteed to elect a majority of the seats when there is an odd number of
seats, and (b) we cannot elect more candidates than there are seats.

Literature Survey

According to Fair Votes In Practice, published in Royal Statistical Societys Journal,

STV must includes following advantages :

a) Votes are cast for individuals not party lists

b) There are no safe seats, so every vote matters
c) The great majority of voters end up with at least one MP they voted for
d)Overall result is broadly proportional, at least among parties attracting support or more
minority parties and independents can get elected if they can attract a similar level of
support locally but it is more difficult for extremist parties, because they tend not to be
anyone's second

According to Confused or competent? How voters use the STV ballot paper,
published in electoral journal in University of Starthclyde , focuses on how voters
respond to the system. The STV is considered extolled, but it is also criticised to be
confusing. Ultimately, it depends on how voters chose to use it. STV was used for the
first time in Scottish local elections in 2007, therefore, survey data was used to examine
the incidence of various indicators of apparent failure by Scottish voters to exploit STV.

Analysis

Limitations of other voting systems:

1.

1.Candidates need a majority of votes to be elected.

2.

2. The votes of all but the winning candidate are wasted.

3.

3.Voters have limited choice.

.
1.

2.

The proposed STV system:

1.Candidates dont need a majority of votes to be elected, all they require is a
known quota.
2.In STV system very few votes are wasted as they can be transferred.

3.

3.The voter marks their ballot card in order of preference which gives maximum
choice to the voter.

4.

4.It is arguably a much more representative and inclusive voting system as it gives
voters more choice than any other system. This choice puts more power in the
hands of voters, rather than the political parties.

5.

5.But STV is hardly used because of the time and complexity involved in
calculation.

6.

6.We aim at making this system more popular by simplifying it for users by
devising an efficient algorithm.

High Level Design- ER Diagram

Low Level Design- Data Flow Diagram

Username,
Password

Admin

Login

Homepage

Success
Logout

Register Number,
Password
Success

Homepage

Start Election,
Add\Edit\Delete
Voters and
Candidates\View
Results

Admin

Error
Voter

Authenticat
e Admin

Login
Regenerate
Password/Voting
completed

Rate
Candidates

Submit

Logout

Voter

Algorithm

Position 1 calculation:

Algorithm

Redistribution:

(No of surplus votes/no of transferable votes) * no of second preference

of given candidate

Testing
TS_ID TEST
PRECONDIT
OBJECTIVE ION/REQUIS
ITE
TS_1 Verify user STV
interface of application is
STV
already open
application

TS_2

TS_3

STEPS

EXPECTED RESULTS

ACTUAL
RESULT
S
Successf
ul

Verify UI of 1) Single Transferable

STV
Voting System should
application
be at the top centre of
the application form
2) Radio button consisting
the choice of admin and
voter should be present
at the centre of the
application form.
3) enter username
textbox should be
present below the radio
button.
Test
STV
Click on
It should display enter
Successf
functionalit application is admin
username textbox
ul
y of admin already open button
radio
button
Test
STV
Click on
It should display enter
Successf
functionalit application is voter
username textbox
ul

Conclusion

Thank You