This document explains in great detail how the votes for elections and amendments are counted at general meetings of the UCCMC. It's mainly for the benefit of Returning Officers whose job it is to count votes and who therefore have to figure it out each year (generally at the last minute) how to tally them up. It should also help explain why they take so long!
The Returning Officers only have a role when voting is taking place - this could be for non-constitutional motions, for motions proposing constitutional amendments and, of course, for the election of officers.
For non-constitutional motions (though there usually aren't be any), a show of hands and a majority of fifty per cent (of the voters present) plus one may be considered sufficient. This is, therefore, a simple majority vote. It's up to the chairperson, before voting takes place, to inform the attendance of the criteria for eligibility for voting. It's also their responsibility to allow discussion of the motion and, if necessary, to take any proposed amendments to the motion before the motion itself is voted upon. Any proposed amendments, once seconded, must be voted upon before the main motion is voted upon.
For motions proposing constitutional amendments there is a piece in the constitution, which stipulates that the motions must be presented in writing to the Hon. Secretary a week before the AGM. The Returning Officer doesn't have an active role here - the secretary must simply confirm that the motion was received in writing before the deadline. Such motions can be amended by a vote on the night, but new motions cannot be put forward. It is also important to note that constitutional amendments need (according to the current constitution) a two-thirds majority to be passed - once again, it's a 2/3 majority of the voters present, not of the whole attendance. I suppose you'd call this a qualified majority vote.
With regard to the election of officers, a lot of study is needed here. The voting system used is the same as that used by the Irish political system, with a few important points to note - It's Proportional Representation (PR) by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) and yes, it is as complicated as it sounds.
The voting order is as follows:
The three Ordinary Committee Members (OCM's) are elected together in one ballot - they then share out the three positions between themselves.
There are, therefore, five separate elections in the Election of Officers - the first four having one seat to fill (i.e. single seat constituencies) and the last one having three seats (a three-seat constituency). By tradition, pre-nomination is not necessary in UCCMC and nominations are taken from the floor. I think it is a rule though that candidates must be voting members.
The PR - STV system is fairly simple for the first four elections - I would however strongly recommend that offices find a book in the Boole to explain how it works - preferably one of the ones with exercises for them to work out for practice. To begin, they count the number of voting papers (watch out for double voting - the same handwriting on two or more papers - it has happened!). Assuming there are no spoiled votes, the total number of papers is the total valid poll. The Officers then need to work out the Quota - the number of votes a person needs to be elected (this should be calculated at the start of each of the five elections). Do this with the formula
Q = (no. of votes/(seats+1))+1
i.e. the Quota = the number of votes over (the number of seats + 1) plus one. So, in a single seat election (i.e. Captain etc.), if say 20 people vote, Q = (20/1+1)+ 1, so Q = 11.
Now, when you have the papers counted (total only) and the quota has been worked out, count the papers on the basis of the first preference votes - If someone gets a quota or more (11 or more in the above example) they a elected on the first count - job done.
If, however, none of the candidates gets a quota first time out, you must proceed to a second count. To do this eliminate the candidate with the lowest number of votes and re-distribute their votes according to the second preferences. If someone now has a quota, they have been elected on the second count - job done.
If, however, none of the candidates gets a quota second time out, you must proceed to a third count. To do this eliminate the candidate with the lowest number of votes at the end of the second count and re-distribute their votes according to their second preferences. (if the second pref. is for a previously eliminated candidate, move on down the paper to the next valid preference. If there is no valid preference which can be transfered, the paper is set aside as non-transferable.) If someone now has a quota, they have been elected on the third count - job done.
Proceed in this fashion until someone gets a quota and is elected - it is also possible, due to the wastage created by non-transferable votes, that you will be left with two candidates, neither of which has a quota, and at this point you'll have no votes left to transfer. In this case, elect the person with most votes - they are deemed to have been elected "on the 3rd/4th/5th...count without reaching the quota".
In the case of two candidates being tied at the end, elect the candidate who was ahead at the last point in the series of counts in which the two were not tied.
(A few sheets of A4 are needed for this; use columns to record votes count-by-count - Help up is handy up here, which is why there are usually two officers someone very trustworthy - and keep others away - candidates especially - Some of the committee may be allowed to see what is going on as long as they are not standing for any post - Anyone who helps/looks at the counts should agree not to divulge anything seen on the table - I think no-one would disagree that the club is too small and close for it to be known that X only got one vote or that A beat B by 24 votes!)
Right, where was I? That was the basics of the first four elections - These are essentially counted on the same lines as an Irish presidential election, where PR STV is simplified by the need to elect only one person.
Next, the real fun starts. We now have to elect three people from one ballot, but these may not be the three in the lead at the end of the first count.
This fourth point is what makes things complicated. In Dáil elections, it is the norm to distribute the papers which gave rise to the surplus, so a person who had 8 votes in our example, when they only needed 6 to be elected, would have two papers taken from the top of their pile and re-distributed to the relevant second preferences. However, this method is somewhat arbitrary, particularly where the electorate is tiny (eg: UCCMC), so we use fractional or senatorial rules instead (as used to elect Seanad Éireann). In this case, the eight papers would be studied, divided up according to second preferences as distributed fractionally. Eg:
X has 8 votes, but needs only six, so is elected. The second prefs. on the eight papers are as follows - Y = 4 second prefs on X's papers, A has 2 and B has 2. The distribution of the 2 surplus votes is as follows: Y gets 1 (having 50% of the second prefs), while A and B get a half each (each having 25% of the second prefs).
In general, you can only do 1 elimination OR 1 surplus distribution per count - the only exception to this is as follows:
Where the, say, two lowest candidates have a combined vote which does not exceed that of the next lowest candidate, they may be eliminated together. Eg:
X = 11 Y = 10 A = 9 B = 7 C = 5 D = 2 E = 1
In this case, we can eliminate D and E together, because if we only eliminated E and his second preference went to D, D still couldn't pass out C and would be eliminated anyway. By the same token, we can not eliminate C, D and E from the above list in one go, as C could, if he got all the transfers from D and E, pass out B and so is entitled to say in until at least the next count.
Got it?
There is a bit more to it than I've explained here (not much Thank God!), so do some reading! It's probably better if the Returning Officers read something first and then we can go over the various possibilities if you want. A book by Basil Chubb, called How Ireland is Governed (I think?) has (I think) an appendix at the back explained how STV works - there are other books available which give exercises for you to do which I found useful.
It is a complicated system, but it is probably one of the fairest, most representative systems amongst the hundreds of electoral systems and variants in use worldwide. It is important to use such a system to ensure all political parties/shades of opinion (Eg: Males, females, walkers, rock climbers, wall climbers, socialites, socialists etc.) get a fair chance to have their views represented on that bastion of democracy that is the committee of UCCMC. A 'first-past-the-post' system, such as that used in Britain, would be easier but would produce different results and could result in someone with just 20% of the first preference votes defeating someone who didn't do so well in the first round but who, through the wonders of PR STV, could gain votes through the counts from many people in room. I've seen people lead in first preference votes only to be defeated by people who were a vote or two behind in the first round but gained as the counts went on - these people were elected on the basis of widespread support in the club, where voters put them on the list in sufficient numbers, if not in first preferences, to win.
This is why it is important for you or the chairman to explain that voters must vote in order of preference, 1, 2, 3, and so on, in order for their votes to have full effect. It should be mentioned also that if they only want to support one candidate, that is perfectly valid and OK too.
Taken from an email by Rory Sherlock
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