How the STV (Single Transferable Vote)
system works
From May, councillors on Scotland's 32 local authorities will be elected using the Single Transferable Vote electoral system (STV) - a form of proportional representation.
New electoral areas will replace existing council wards, which were developed by the independent Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland through a public consultation process.
These new wards are larger in size and voters will elect either three or four councillors to represent them instead of one, as before.
Under the new STV system, voters mark their ballot paper to show the order in which they want candidates to be elected.
Instead of using the traditional cross to mark their ballot paper, voters should mark their first choice with a '1', their second choice '2' and so on. Voters may mark just one preference or as many preferences as there are candidates.
Marking candidates in order of preference means that if the voter's first choice is not elected then the vote may be transferred to the second choice and so on until all preferences are exhausted or until all seats are filled.
Voting in the Local Council Elections
Everyone lives in a ward that will have either three or four councillors elected on May 3. The size and electorate in these wards are three to four times bigger than before. On a separate ballot form, which is white, you will find candidates listed alphabetically, with most having a party named alongside. To vote, you have to use numbers, and not an X, to show your priorities. Place 1 against your favourite or preferred candidate, write 2 against your second preference, and so on. You do not have to fill in numbers for all the candidates, leaving only a single 1 if you choose.
Do not fold your ballot form.
What happens next?
The new counting system for councils starts by totalling first preferences. In a four-member ward, any candidate who secures more than the “quota” of 20% is declared elected. If no-one reaches that threshhold, the ballot papers backing the lowest scoring candidate are redistributed according to second preferences, until one person reaches the quota. That winning candidate’s ballot papers are then redistributed. That means the second preferences are allocated to remaining candidates. If the new total puts other candidates over the quota, they are elected, and there follows another redistribution of their next preferences. The process of redistribution continues until enough people have passed the quota threshold to fill all the councillor seats available.
In a three-member ward, the quota is 25%.
Scottish Parliament Voting System Explained
To find out more, see:
Vote Scotland
The Electoral Reform Society
| 
