PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1931, Page 17

PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

UNIVERSITY SENATE

GRADUATES' REPRESENTATIVES

Preferential voting is the feature of a new system of voting at elections of members to represent the graduates on the New Zealand University Senato which was adopted by the senate to-day. Under the scheme it is provided that a voter shall indicate the order ,of his preference by writing numbers on his ballot paper opposite the names of one or more candidates. If the number of first preferences received by any candidate exceeds half the number of voting papers, that candidate will be declared elected and will be ignored in all further counts. If the number of last preferences received by any candidate exceeds half the number of voting papers, that candidate will be at once placed last and excluded from all further counts. These processes may be repeated as often as possible with the remaining candidates. The number of times each candidate is preferred to each other candidate should be ascertained, equalities or absence of any preferential indication being ignored. If the result is positive in every case, the candidate will be declared re-elected, and if negative the candidate will be placed last. These processes may bo repeated. The numbers in the remaining cases will then be summed. All the columns whose totals are negative numbers will be provisionally excluded, together • with the corresponding counts. The procedure may be repeated until only one candidate is left. That candidate will be declared re-elected. If a further vacancy is to be filled, the procedure is to be repeated in the same manner, after excluding the elected candidate. If at any stage the candidates should be similarly placed, the candidate to be elected is to be selected by lot. Five members are to be elected to the senate by graduates in future under this system.