STV description

The Single Transferable Vote works by trying to interpret the true intentions of each voter and to fairly allocate seats based on those intentions. Each voter lists candidates based on their preference.

You may vote for a person from your neighbourhood or you could vote for someone who shares your values and lives in a different area within your voting district.

Once every voter has cast their votes, the election officials will count each vote to find out how many votes a candidate will need to win. If there are four seats available, each candidate will need just over 20% of the votes.

Each candidate needs a minimum number of votes.

After all the votes are counted we look at how many votes each candidates received. If any candidate reaches the required number of votes, they are declared elected. If they had received more votes than they needed, a fraction of each vote gets moved to the voter’s second preference.

Think of your vote as a dollar. If the candidate you vote for only needs $0.90 of your vote, you still have a dime to give to your second favourite candidate.

The Single Transferable Vote then works to narrow down the candidate based on the number of votes they had. The least popular candidate is then eliminated.

If your candidate fall short, your entire $1.00 goes to your next choice.



The vote is counted in rounds until the four candidates representing the most overall voters in the district are declared elected.

With the Single Transferable Vote, a large majority of voters have their vote recognized.

Most voters will find that their first choice won or that their vote was moved to their second choice. Some may still not elect a candidate, but this would be less one in five people, and one of their second or third choice may have also won.

Now, some people may wonder if they will still elect representatives who knows their community?

The answer is yes, because voters can give their first, second and third choice to candidates from their own area.

BC will still have the same number of seats to people and many voters are likely to vote for candidates who they have met or are from their local area.

Some voters may choose to vote for someone in a different part of the district who shares their views or maybe has had a similar background or career. Rural areas may prefer to vote for someone local, while in a dense city you may get MLAs with different skills and who represent the diversity of a major urban center.

Once all of the seats are declared, we will find that the legislature feels a lot more like our own communities, diverse and full of individuals from different backgrounds.

Government will no longer be split between an opposition and the ruling party. The legislature may still have larger parties, but there will also be independents and perhaps a few people associated with a smaller party.

The legislature will be more balanced, and the government may choose it cabinet from people of a few different backgrounds.