The Voting System That's Too Good for Politicians to Allow

TL;DR

Single Transferable Vote produces fairer, more proportional elections with ranked ballots, which is why self-interested politicians resist replacing winner-takes-all systems.

Key Points

• 1.Winner-takes-all voting lets a minority dominate entirely. In the animal kingdom example, monkeys win every single-representative range despite being a minority, leaving 2/3 of citizens unrepresented.
• 2.STV uses larger multi-representative ranges to achieve proportionality. Dividing total votes by seats needed sets a winning threshold (e.g., 33% for 3 seats), allowing tigers, owls, and lynx to each win a seat instead of all going to monkeys.
• 3.Ranked ballots eliminate the 'wasted vote' problem and strategic voting. When Tasier is eliminated, their voters' second-choice votes transfer to Gorilla, pushing him to 33% — citizens can back their true favorite without fear of spoiling the result.
• 4.Surplus vote transfer prevents over-rewarding popular candidates. White Tiger's excess votes above the threshold pass to Tiger, ensuring the tigers' large population share earns two seats rather than handing undue wins to gorillas.