h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: STV - the Single Transferable Vote - A58593180
Author: Nosebagbear - U14077177

A flea market rescue
This is the 2nd attempt that i have given it to be put into PR, withdrawn the first time as I was considering making it part of a uni project...exams have reared their heads so it will be submitted as a solo project.
A summary of STV, what it is, how to do it, an example, a history and where it is used.
There were a few arguments (pulling several ways) last time, so i'm more than happy to see what people think need changing.

Just to let you know I did make a start on this but I didn't have time to finish reading it. It's full of good information but not an easy read so I need to dedicate some time to it!

Cheers, Im hoping i get some input before next tuesday, where my workload will massively start up again, hence me putting in two PR at the same time

Hi guys, sorry to be fussy ( irealise the eds are otherwise engaged atm) bt I'm not such an expert on PR methods as on my other topic so could use some helpful advice. Cheers
Nbb

I keep trying to read and understand this nbb - I admit it, I can be a bit dense at times, but this sentence confuses me somewhat.

STV can also be used with single-member constituencies, where it produces results similar to those of a two-round electoral system, with candidates being removed until a winner is found.

Try as I may I cannot get my head round what a single-member constituenty might be, and if they only had one member, how could candidates be removed Sorry . . .


(and other organisational) I'm not sure that your sentence needs this in it unless the other organisational things are really relevant in which case you will have to spell them out.

that your vote was [casted] for, ---> cast

being much higher ---> would be much higher

Voting in an STV system, requires all you to be eligible to vote.

Re-read this sentence aloud and write it again - I think it lost its meaning somehow in an edit, and I can't make a suggestion here.

but fulfilling them is [required] to ----> necessary
(You have one instance of required earlier in the same sentence.)

When you have [hopefully] made it to your voting booth ---> finally

list of candidates, and you will be told

---> list of candidates. You will then be told to rank your preferences. Here is how to do just that:

Obviously most people do this before but if you haven't then try to recall who looks or sounds most interesting.

I think you would be best to remove this whole sentence as it weakens your structure.

Not knowing this before you enter is far more common, particularly when it is your first time using a multiple choice ballot.

Same here, I think it reads better without this sentence as well.


There is still a fairly high chance of this vote being used so [spend some time thinking about it]. ---> so choose wisely.

name, hopefully in the box. ---> name.


the 'hopefully in the box' part sounds a bit patronising.


change the " " double quotes around the 1 and the 2 to ' ' single ones, as the double ones can play havoc with some browsers apparently

voting slip in the box --->
voting slip in the ballot box


walk out of the both ---> booth

Place fullstops on the end of all the footnote sentences.

Footnote 2: And so have their outstanding votes redistributed

Do you mean [surplus] votes? ie votes that are above the level that they need to be elected?

Votes = the number of the votes that are legitimate

---> Votes here means the number of legitimate votes, ie non-spoiled votes.


I'm going to have to stop here as my head hurts. I'll try and come back again. But if any other reviewer wishes to help out here - pleae carry on. I'm up to the bit where there are tables giving examples.


Goodnight!

Lanzababy

name, hopefully in the box. ---> name.

the 'hopefully in the box' part sounds a bit patronising.

Yes, but I think "...name hopefully." would sound more, well, hopeful.

Also:

In the UK, for example, it is always raining; especially on a Thursday when the public votes.

Except that elections these days tend to be called in May, in the hopes of sunnier weather and therefore a better turnout.

Geggs

Ha. My boys keep playing with brio at the moment - 'tis a wooden train track thing. So that's more on my mind than .


Geggs

Oh geggs! do you have a minute to take a look at the table part? Tell us what you think. Is it clear to understand? I could really do with some help on this one please


Lanzababy

I love brio. It's a lovely word, means something jolly in Italian too as far as I remember from my piano playing childhood.

Ahhhhh!

I couldn't believe my eyes when i saw 5 posts on this - I'll do the work later today...just as soon as I've had brunch

single-member constituencies are areas which only are picking one member (e.g. if we picked MPs with STV without changing any more of our political system, we would have these single-member areas)

People would just knocked out one (or more) at a time

Nevertheless, I will clarify it when i fix my mistakes

Thanks for all the work put in Lanza - annoyingly this was a rescue that i worked on and added to long ago, but only just added to PR. Normally I do a much better spell check on my entries.
On the plus side i discovered that ctrl+f works within the little browser window, which made it quicker

Cheers
nbb

I intend to come back to do some more on this, but I was rather hoping for input from someone else regarding the information in the tables. It just looks a little complicated, IMO. I really like simple things.

I haven't got the time to look hard at the tables at the moment, but just on the surface all the AAAA BBB CCCC DDDDDDDD business seems to turn up without any explanation of what it means.



Geggs

I'm slightly unsure about how to display it

but the AAAAA are the votes for .... as their first choice and ........... as their 2nd choice

I feel the tables are the easiest way to give a full example of the voting system. If they can be simplified or explained bettter (the latter is likely, i suspect) that would be good

Any more errors that people can find?

Or suggestions on how to explain the table better?

Nbb

I'd only got as far as proof reading up as far as the table


I keep taking a look at it ( the table ) but because I can't really understand what you mean, I can't think how better to explain it.


Maybe if you have time, you could try again from scratch - (use Notepad or something) to explain it again (the table part, but in words) - and post it here, in the convo, so I can get my head round it.

We'll get there in the end!

How's school?

School is me doing physics coursework (see how I'm concentrating)

I'll think about whether to rewrite it, or redo the table when i have time

ugh! physics, well at least that has a basis for understanding reality. I just got waylaid by the maths part of it


anyhoo . . .

back to the STV


proof-reading from the part _after_ the table


Conservatives, labour, Lib Dems

capital letter for Labour

David Cameron, Grant Shapps

I guess that in ten years time we might still remember who Cameron was, but I have no idea who this Shapps person is? Maybe we should have a footnote here to explain? Both of them, for overseas or those like me who care not a jot about politicians.

This is due to how

I bet you speak with better grammar than this nbb - I'll let you sort that bit out...

supported by a similar electorate as elected them.
ditto

. . very difficult system to understand. Voters seldom fully understand . .

two uses of the word 'understand' Can you change one of them to comprehend?

decision making capability, ----> decision-making

preventing majorities being found in parliamentary votes.

do you mean majorities being achievable in parliamentary voting? I'm not sure I follow your meaning here.

invention of a system of votes being transferable was invented

two instances of 'invent'

How about
The first instance of a system of votes being transferable was brought into being by Thomas . . .

and following on from that

later was the system used

change to

Only 34 years later this type of voting was used

Footnote 5

A very short lived house in the the 1st Danish Parliament.

1st ---> first

A decade later he used the same system elect the other house in the Danish Parliament, the Landsting.

Either there is a [to] missing between system and elect, or I am misunderstanding you here.

system that bares obvious ---> bears

In his system[,] voters would be told

place a comma where indicated [,]

received their final vote.6 In order to more firmly connect voters with their leaders.

Take out the full stop and replace with a comma, remove the capital I on the word In

large coalitions over the last decade or so

It would be a nice touch here to future-proof your Entry nbb. Maybe you could change this sentence to indicate which decade the coalitions began

eg

resulted in power being held by large coalitions since the 1990s ( or whenever it was)


Government has been reasonably stable ---> which Government?

single party ---> single-party

Malta is a beneficiary of the STV system. --->

Malta benefits directly from the STV system.

Formatting
In the bullet points for Ireland, Malta and the UK I think it would look neater if you had the three examples in bold text followed by a full stop and then the start of a new sentence in each case.

eg Malta. This little island state

And, I wonder whether you should refer to Ireland as the Republic of Ireland here, or Eire. I leave that with you to ponder.


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You owe me a large drink nbb, when you get to be old enough to buy one!

Cheers Lanza

And i never can figure out why my written grammar is so much worse in h2g2 - i write very good passages for myself and others in MUN (see my other article - where my grammar is also bad) and spoken.

Ah well
I'll make a start tommorrow, and I'll buy you a figurative in less than a month

I think it has to do with the relatively small size of the edit window, plus all the GuideML formatting. - on top of that, after a while our brain only really reads what we think we have written.

That's why all professional writers have proofreaders. No-one can see their own mistakes.


A good ploy is to write a clear copy using notepad - then add the GuideML once you're happy with the finished Entry. It's no good using Word or such, because it adds in all sorts of unwanted formatting.

Oh, and you're absolutely _nowhere_ near the worst person I've had the privilege of working with here in PR - at least you've promised me that

Enjoy the weekend!