Voting System
Single Transferable Voting System
The single transferable vote (STV) will be used for the Council Election. STV is an electoral system that produces proportional representation while at the same time giving voters more choice over who their elected representative will be. It is the electoral system used to elect local councillors to all of Scotland's 32 councils.
Proportional representation refers to any electoral system which elects several people together in a way that parties (or independent candidates) get shares of the seats which more proportionately reflect their shares of the votes.
When you cast your vote, you list the candidates in order of preference, starting with '1' for your first choice, '2' for your second and so on until you no longer wish to express a preference.
If the candidate who is your first choice does not have enough support to be elected and is therefore eliminated then your vote is transferred to your second preference. Again, if this candidate did not have enough support, the same transfer would take place to your third preference (and so on).
If the candidate who is your first choice has more than enough support and is elected with surplus to the quota needed to be elected, then surplus votes are again transferred to the second preference.
In East Lothian, 23 local councillors are elected to represent one of seven multi-member wards. Five of these wards are represented by three councillors and two wards are represented by four councillors.
The Election will be counted electronically due to the complexity involved in counting an STV election.