The Single Transferable Vote (STV) is a preferential voting system designed to minimise wasted votes and provide proportional representation in multi-candidate elections while ensuring that votes are explicitly for candidates rather than party lists. STV voting systems achieve this by initially allocating an individual's vote to their most preferred candidate and then subsequently transferring unneeded or unused votes after candidates are either elected or eliminated according to the voter's stated preferences. STV is promoted as a proportional representation method in multi-party multi-seat elections. In Australia, it is known as the Hare-Clark Proportional method, while the same system with parties able to indicate preferences is called simply STV. When STV methods are applied to single-seat elections, they simplify to instant-runoff voting and have different proportionality implications for a similar ballot due to the existence of only one winner.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Transferable_Vote

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1399: The Duke of Lancaster deposed Richard II to become Henry IV of England, merging the Duchy of Lancaster with the crown. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_England)

1966: Seretse Khama became the first President of Botswana when the Bechuanaland Protectorate gained independence from the United Kingdom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seretse_Khama)

1980: Ethernet specifications were first published by Xerox, Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet)

1982: The sitcom Cheers was first broadcast on U.S. television. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers)

1991: Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a coup d'état and replaced by General Raoul Cédras. A large-scale exodus of boat people ensued. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." -- Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jalal_al-Din_Muhammad_Rumi)