Single Transferable Vote (STV) System

The single transferable vote (STV) is a way of voting in which you do not pick just one candidate. Instead, you rank the candidates in order of your choice: 1 for your first choice, 2 for your second, and so on. If your first choice does not need your vote (because they have already won, or because they have no chance), your vote moves to your next choice. That is why it is called "transferable". Your single vote keeps working until it helps someone get elected.

Why does India use it?

In a normal election, the candidate with the most votes wins, even with just 30% support. The other 70% of voters may get nobody they wanted. STV tries to fix this. It makes sure that, when several seats are filled together, each group of voters wins seats roughly in proportion to its size. The makers of the Constitution chose it for indirect elections (where elected members, not ordinary people, vote) and for special electorates like graduates and teachers. They wanted minorities inside these small electorates also to have a fair voice.

Where did it come from?

The idea was developed in the mid-1800s. Carl Andrae used a version of it in Denmark in 1855. In Britain, Thomas Hare explained it in detail in 1857, and the thinker John Stuart Mill supported it strongly. Today, it is used for national elections in Ireland and Malta and for the Australian Senate. In India, the Constitution itself writes STV into several articles, so it has been used since 1950.

Where does India use STV?

The Constitution says these elections must be held "in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote":

• President: Article 55(3). Voters are the elected MPs and the elected MLAs of states and Union Territories with legislatures.
• Vice-President: Article 66(1). Voters are all MPs of both Houses.
• Rajya Sabha: Article 80(4). Voters are the elected MLAs of each state.
• State Legislative Council (MLC): Article 171(4). Voters are local body members, graduates, teachers and MLAs, depending on the seat.

Lok Sabha, State Assembly, panchayat and municipal elections do not use STV. They use first-past-the-post (FPTP).

How does voting work?

The voter gets a paper ballot with a list of candidates. Next to each name there is a column for the preference. The voter writes 1 next to the first choice, and may write 2, 3 and so on next to others. Marking the first preference is compulsory; the other preferences are optional. Numbers must be written in figures (1, 2, 3), not ticks or crosses.

Since 2016, the Election Commission of India (ECI) allows only a special violet sketch pen, given by the polling staff, to mark the ballot. This rule came after a dispute in the 2016 Rajya Sabha election in Haryana, where many votes were rejected because a different ink was used.

How does counting work?

Counting happens in rounds. First, officials work out the quota: the number of votes a candidate needs to be sure of winning.

• For one seat: quota = (total valid votes ÷ 2) + 1, ignoring any fraction. This is simply more than half the votes.
• For more than one seat: each valid ballot is given a value of 100 (so that votes can be split into fractions during transfer). Quota = [(total valid votes × 100) ÷ (number of seats + 1)] + 1, ignoring any fraction. This rule is in the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

A simple example: 200 MLAs vote to fill 3 Rajya Sabha seats. Quota = (200 × 100) ÷ (3 + 1) + 1 = 5,000 + 1 = 5,001. So a candidate needs first-preference votes worth 5,001, which means 51 MLAs (51 × 100 = 5,100).

Then the rounds begin:

1. Count first preferences. Anyone who reaches the quota is elected.
2. Transfer the surplus. If a winner got more votes than the quota, the extra (the surplus) is passed on to the next choices marked on that winner's ballots, in proportion.
3. Eliminate the lowest. If no one reaches the quota, the candidate with the fewest votes is removed. Their ballots go to the next preference marked on them.
4. Repeat until all seats are filled.

Think of it like filling buses for a school trip. Each bus (seat) needs a fixed number of students (the quota). Once a bus is full, extra students who wanted that bus move to their second-choice bus. If a bus has too few students to ever leave, it is cancelled and its students move to their next choice.

Why can't EVMs be used?

An EVM is a vote aggregator: it simply adds up one button-press per voter for one candidate. That suits FPTP. STV needs the machine to record a full ranking from every voter, then calculate quotas, surpluses and transfers. The present EVMs were not designed for this, and a completely different machine would be needed. So the ECI uses paper ballots for Presidential, Vice-Presidential, Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections.

Open ballot vs secret ballot

Most STV elections in India are by secret ballot. The one big exception is the Rajya Sabha. In 2003, Parliament amended Section 59 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to make Rajya Sabha voting an open ballot: an MLA who belongs to a party must show the marked ballot to the party's authorised agent.

The aim was to stop cross-voting and money power. In Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India (2006), a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the open ballot, and also upheld removing the rule that a Rajya Sabha candidate must live in the state from which they are elected. Legislative Council elections by MLAs remain secret.

Commonly confused concepts

• STV vs first-past-the-post (FPTP): In FPTP, you choose one candidate and whoever gets the most votes wins, even without a majority. In STV, you rank candidates, and a winner must reach a quota.
• STV vs list proportional representation: In list PR (used in many European countries), people vote for a party, and parties get seats by their vote share. STV is candidate-based: you rank individual people, not party lists.
• Single-seat STV vs multi-seat STV: When only one seat is filled (like the President's election, or a single graduates' seat), STV behaves like "instant run-off" voting: the winner needs more than half the votes. True proportional results appear only when several seats are filled together.
• Who votes in which election: MLCs do not vote in the Presidential election or in Rajya Sabha elections. Only elected MLAs vote for the Rajya Sabha; nominated MLAs do not.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Complex for voters: Many voters, especially in graduates' and teachers' seats, do not understand ranking. Wrong marks (a tick instead of "1", or two "1"s) make ballots invalid. Invalid votes are often high in these elections.
• Slow counting: Counting in rounds by hand can take a day or more.
• Cross-voting and horse-trading: In indirect elections with small electorates (a few hundred MLAs), each vote is valuable. This creates pressure and the risk of money power. The open ballot reduced this for the Rajya Sabha, but critics say it weakens voting secrecy.
• Technology: Experts have suggested developing a preference-capable voting machine, but it would need wide testing and trust before use.
• Voter awareness: The ECI runs awareness drives explaining how to mark preferences. Simpler ballot design and clear instructions are suggested to reduce invalid votes.

Concepts to Know

• Proportional representation: A voting idea where the share of seats a group wins matches its share of votes. If a group has 40% of the votes, it should get about 40% of the seats.
• Indirect election: An election where ordinary citizens do not vote directly. Instead, people who were already elected (MPs, MLAs, local body members) choose the winner.
• Quota: The fixed number of votes a candidate must reach to be declared elected.
• Surplus: The extra votes a winner gets above the quota. In STV these are passed on to other candidates.
• Cross-voting: When a member votes for a candidate of a different party, against the decision of their own party.
• EVM (Electronic Voting Machine): The machine used in India's Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. It was first used in 1982 in Paravur, Kerala, and the law was changed in 1989 to allow its use.