Single transferable vote, counted in full. Paste the ranked ballots — one ballot per line, most-preferred candidate first — set how many seats to fill, and this runs a complete STV count: it works out the Droop quota, elects anyone who reaches it, transfers their surplus at the right fractional value, and eliminates the lowest candidate when no one else reaches quota — round by round until every seat is filled. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
List each ballot's candidates in order of preference, separated by > (or a comma). To enter many identical ballots at once, start the line with a count: 6: Alice > Bob > Carol means six such ballots. Names are matched case-insensitively; a candidate repeated on one ballot is only counted once.
The Droop quota — votes ÷ (seats + 1), rounded down, + 1 — is the standard for STV: it is the smallest number of votes that only as many candidates as there are seats can each reach. The Hare quota (votes ÷ seats) is larger and rarely used for STV.
The single transferable vote (STV) is a proportional way to fill several seats at once using ranked ballots. Instead of every voter's ballot counting for just one winner, a vote that isn't needed — because its candidate already has enough support, or has none left — transfers to the next preference on that same ballot. The result is that most voters help elect someone they ranked highly, and a like-minded group wins seats roughly in proportion to its size. STV is used for the Irish Dáil, the Australian Senate, Scottish and some US local councils, and countless clubs, unions and student bodies. This tool runs the full count on ballots you paste.
Two seats on a committee, twelve ballots: six rank Alice > Bob > Carol, two rank Bob > Alice > Carol, three rank Carol > Dan, one ranks Dan > Carol. The Droop quota is ⌊12 ÷ 3⌋ + 1 = 5. Alice starts with 6 — over quota — so she is elected and her surplus of 1 transfers to Bob at value 1/6, giving Bob 3. No one else has 5, so the lowest candidate (Dan, 1) is eliminated and his ballot passes to Carol, who now has 4. Still short of quota, Bob (3) is now lowest and is eliminated; his votes flow on to Carol, who passes the quota and takes the second seat. Alice and Carol are elected. Press “Load example” above to watch the rounds.
STV vs instant-runoff (RCV). They use the same kind of ranked ballot and the same transfer idea, but instant-runoff fills a single seat, so it only ever eliminates — there is no quota to reach or surplus to share. STV for one seat is exactly instant-runoff. See the ranked-choice / instant-runoff calculator.
STV vs party-list PR. Both aim for proportional results, but party-list systems (D'Hondt, Sainte-Laguë) allocate seats to parties from vote totals, while STV works on candidates and needs no parties at all — voters can rank people across party lines. For the party-list version see the seat allocation calculator.
Why fractional transfers? Passing on whole ballots chosen at random can change the result by luck of the draw. Transferring every ballot at a fraction of its value moves exactly the surplus and makes the count reproducible — the same ballots always give the same result here.
Can ballots be partial? Yes. Ranking only some candidates is fine; if all of a ballot's ranked candidates are elected or out, it simply becomes exhausted.
How are ties broken? When two candidates are exactly level for election or elimination, this tool breaks the tie deterministically by name so the count is repeatable. Real elections use a prescribed rule (often the earlier round's totals, then lot).
Is anything sent to a server? No. The whole count runs in your browser, so you can paste real ballots safely.
This is one of a set of free voting calculators here: Borda count, ranked-choice / instant-runoff, Condorcet, STAR, party-list seat allocation, and a compare-all-methods tool. STV is the multi-winner, candidate-based counterpart.