How to count multi seat office elections

Multiple seat races work a little differently.  

All the ballots are sorted and counted, and the first choice votes are tallied. Any candidate who reaches the winning threshold is elected. If all of the seats are not filled, all candidates who have no mathematical chance of winning are eliminated. Votes for the eliminated candidates are then redistributed to the voters’ next choices. Then, if all the seats are still not filled, the election judges take the surplus votes of the candidate who has the largest number of surplus votes and redistributes those votes to the next choice candidate on those ballots.

These “surplus” votes are allocated proportionately to the remaining candidates according to the voters’ next choices. That proportion is calculated by dividing the number of surplus votes the winning candidate received by the total votes for the winning candidate. If all the seats are still not filled after the surplus votes have been redistributed, the process of eliminating candidates who have the lowest number of votes is repeated.

This process continues until all the seats are filled.

For Board of Estimate and Taxation, an election for 2 seats, a candidate who receives 33% of the vote plus one vote is elected.

For Park Board At-Large, an election for 3 seats, a candidate who receives 25% of the vote plus one vote is elected.

In a race where 4000 votes are cast, the winning threshold for this election for 3 seats is 1,001 votes (4,000/4 + 1 vote)

Round 1 The total first-choice votes are counted and Lake Nokomis wins in the first round. There are still two more seats that need to be filled.

Round 2 Next we eliminate the candidate who has no mathematical chance of being elected. Candidate Brownie Lake is mathematically eliminated because it is impossible for him to get more votes than the next higher candidate. The votes for Brownie Lake are then redistributed to Lake Calhoun and Lake Hiawatha based on the second choice on Brownie Lake’s ballots. Now Lake Hiawatha has enough votes to win and only one seat is left to fill.

Round 3 Now we take the surplus votes of the candidate who has the largest number of surplus votes and redistribute those votes to the next choice candidate on those ballots. Both Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha have a surplus because they both have more than 1,001 votes. In this case, Lake Nokomis has the largest surplus, with 299 more votes than needed to win. These surplus votes are proportionally redistributed to remaining candidates based on the next choice on Lake Nokomis’ ballots

Lake Nokomis received 23 percent (299/1300) more votes than needed to win, so 23 percent of each ballot cast for Lake Nokomis is redistributed to the next choice on that candidate’s ballots. When the votes are redistributed, Lake Calhoun goes over the threshold and all three seats have been filled. Lake Nokomis, Lake Hiawatha, and Lake Calhoun are the three winners.