STV analysis

Total: 13/20

Proprotionality/party representation

4.5/5

• Use of Droop quota enhances proportionality

Examples

• 2021 NI assembly election - v close correlation between % of votes and % of seats

Voter choice

4.5/5

• Each voter gets as many votes as there are candidates, and these are almost never wasted as are still redistributed to another candidate of their choice

• Can place as many or as few votes as they wish

• All votes are of equal value and there’s less incentive to vote tactically

• However, there is an issue with spoilt ballots

• Has had hugely positive effects on turnout

Examples:

• 2011- EONI rejected more than 12,000 ballot papers as spoilt

• 2016- new ballot paper style introduced

• 2016- reduction in spoilt ballots to 9,425 (mainly due to mismarked ballots)

• Number of rejected ballots in STV more than 2x that of FPTP Westminster elections

• 95% of respondents to the electoral commission’s survey found their ballot paper easy to fill in

• 2016- turnout 64.8% (highest since first assembly election in 1998)

Strong and stable govt

2/5

• The reason STV is used in NI is because it does not produce a majority

• It it used in NI to prevent Unionists or Nationalists ruling alone

Examples:

• No single party has held an outright majority in Stormont

Constituency-voter link

3/5

• Size of multi-member constituencies weakens the relationship between elected representatives and their local area

• Due to multi-member constituencies, voters are more likely to ahve an elected representative who shares their ideology/beliefs