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Parliamentary Education Office, 2011. Please visit the Image Library page for important information about use of images.

Description

This diagram is a visual description of how preferential voting works.

To be elected a candidate must have an absolute majority of votes (more than 50% of the total votes). In the example below using 100 votes, the absolute majority is 51 or more.

First count:

• Maria receives 39 votes
• Ari receives 35 votes
• Joe receives 20 votes
• Lauren receives 6 votes.

No one has 51 or more votes, so Lauren’s votes are transferred (distributed) according to second preferences.

Second count:

• Maria receives 40 votes
• Ari receives 39 votes
• Joe receives 21 votes.

No one has 51 or more votes, so Joe’s votes are transferred (distributed) according to the next preferences.

Third count:

• Maria receives 46 votes
• Ari receives 54 votes.

Ari is elected with 54 votes.