There is not that much "extra" counting in STV, especially not if you consider the large proportion of satisfied voters.
In what is likely a typical STV election, each ballot was counted twice on average, and almost 18,000 of 22,000 voters saw their vote used to elect someone they preferred over the other choices.
In a typical Block Voting election, each ballot cast contains six votes on average and most of the winners do not have support of a majority of the voters.
In First past the post election each ballot is counted just once and the winner usually does not represent a majority of the voters.
check out the Malta 2020 election, district 1
quota 3615
1st Round: 22,229 votes counted.
separate tallies for each candidate
Assopardi got more than quota - 3774
2nd Round: transfer of Assopardi surplus next usable preference on his 3774 ballots examined,
160 transferred in proportion as a miniature of the 3774 ballots.
3rd round elimination of least popular candidate Attard's 18 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
4th round elimination of least popular candidate 29 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
5th round elimination of least popular candidate 45 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
6th round elimination of least popular candidate 55 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
7th round elimination of least popular candidate 62 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
8th round elimination of least popular candidate 62 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
9th round elimination of least popular candidate 70 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
10th round elimination of least popular candidate 101 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
11 elimination of least popular candidate 148 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
12 elimination of least popular candidate 280 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
13 elimination of least popular candidate 296 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
14 elimination of least popular candidate 369 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
15 elimination of least popular candidate 465 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
16 elimination of least popular candidate 562 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
17 elimination of least popular candidate 708 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
18 elimination of least popular candidate 1174 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
19 elimination of least popular candidate 1540 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
20 elimination of least popular candidate
2404 votes transferred (by simple reference to next usable back-up preference)
The candidate eliminated was of the National Party. A great proportion of his votes went to the only two remaining candidates of his party. and they both went over quota in this count.
Only about 40 went to Labour Party candidates.
83 were found to bear no usable back-up preferences so were moved to the "non-transferable votes" pile.
21 Carrabott (National Party) surplus transferred. next usable preference on the 4136 ballots examined,
521 transferred in proportion as a miniature of the 4136 ballots.
22 De Marco (National Party) surplus transferred. next usable preference on the 3995 ballots examined, 380 transferred in proportion as a miniature of the 3995 ballots. the Counting ended there. with two seats remaining open, there were only three candidates remaining (all three were of the Labour party.) De Battista (3476) and Farrugia (3236) were declared elected, having more votes than Herrera (2723). total transferred were: arising from eliminations: 8388 arising from election (surplus transfers) votes consulted 11,905 votes transferred 1061. transfers arising from eliminations are straightforward. votes are transferred just according to next usable marked back-up preference or to "non-transferable votes" pile if there is no usable marked back-up preferences.
only three times were surplus votes transferred. this type of transfer is more intricate, but not overwhelming in its math. altogether 20,293 votes are transferred or consulted as to surplus votes. so equivalent of each vote being handled twice on average. some votes were not handled more than once. those votes cast in 1st Round for De Marco, Farrugia and Herrera were not consulted more than once. they stayed with those candidates for the full process. Those candidates are not eliminated and the votes were not consulted for transfer of surplus as they did not have transfer. De Battista 2290 Farrugia 2363 Herrera 2130
Example of a Block Voting election In the 2017 City of Red Deer election (Block Voting) 19,000 voted and 121,746 votes were counted in the aldermanic contest. so, far more counting than in Malta's District 1. and result was not fair. The eight successful councillor candidates were elected with between 12,258 and 6296 votes each. Only two received support of more than half the voters who voted. They in total received 67,346, 55 percent of the votes cast. 45 percent of votes cast were disregarded and played no part in electing representatives.
Example of a FPTP election in City of Edmonton 2021 election, each vote was handled once. But the successful mayoral candidate and nine of the 12 ward councillors were elected with less than half the votes in their wards. Two were elected although receiving fewer than 27 percent of the votes. Only 8700 voters in those two wards saw their choice elected while 33,000 voters in the two wards were not that lucky. Over all the 12 wards, 99,000 voters saw their choice elected while 112,000 voters were not that lucky.
So the easier vote process under FPTP produced much fewer satisfied votes than the moderately-lengthier process of STV.
Under STV, the ballot from each voter is just counted twice on the average so that is not bad compared to Block Voting where average of six votes from each voter are counted.
-----------------
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Edmonton_municipal_election
Malta:
===============================
Comments