This is a modified form of the Single Transferable Vote system where there is to be only one winner. It's called the Alternative Vote or AV. It allows voters to conveniently find a strongly supported winner from among many candidates, with minimal worries about "wasting" votes on weak candidates or "splitting" votes between similar candidates. Here's how it works:
- Each ballot is counted toward its highest-ranked remaining candidate.
- Does a candidate have a majority of counted votes?
No: The last-place candidate is eliminated; go to step 1.
Yes: The majority winner wins the election.
Tips:
- Your lower choices won't hurt the chances of your higher choices.
- You can't give two or more candidates the same rank.
- Only the order of your ranked candidates matters, and not the actual numbers.
- You can give many preferences as you like, until you are indifferent between the remaining candidates, there is no need to stop when you've voted for as many candidates as there are positions.
- If you don't rank a candidate, it means you'd rather not have your vote count than have it count toward that candidate.