PR-STV explainer: How Ireland’s election count system works

Called proportional representation with a single transferable vote, or PR–STV for short, Ireland is only one of one of two countries in Europe, along with Malta, that use this system.

As we saw in the local and European elections, it can lead to days and days of worth of vote counting.

Despite that drawback (or bonus, whichever way you look at it!), PR–STV is considered a fair way of electing politicians, compared to the UK’s first-past-the-post or the US’s electoral college system.

Here is exactly how the system works:

The vote:

It begins with the ballot paper, where voters rank the candidates, putting a number one beside their first preference candidate, a number two beside their second preference, and so on down the line.

Selecting your preference becomes crucial when it comes to counting the vote and choosing who gets elected.

The quota:

When all the ballots are cast and polling day is over, then the count begins. The first thing that needs to be calculated is the quota for the…

We’ve summarized this news for a quick read. If you’re interested, you can read the full article here:

Independent.ie