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STV Documentation

This is a pure Python implementation of Simple Transferable Vote (STV) counting. It also implements the version of STV that is used in the elections of the Greek university governing councils.

Usage

Help is available with

python stv.py --help

The parameters include:

  • -b BALLOTS_FILE, --ballots BALLOTS_FILE

The ballots file is a CSV file containing a single ballot in each line, for instance:

Chocolate, Strawberry
Banana, Sweets
Banana, Sweets
Banana, Strawberry
  • -n, --not_droop

Do not use the Droop quota. Usually, the Droop quota is used. In the Greek university governing councils elections a slightly different formula is used, specifically:

int(math.ceil(1 + len(ballots) / (seats + 1.0)))
  • -s SEATS --seats SEATS

The number of seats to be elected.

  • -c CONSTITUENCIES_FILE, --constituencies CONSTITUENCIES_FILE

In the Greek university governing councils elections there are quotas on the number of seats to be filled by members of a single school. The constituencies file is a CSV file containing the allocation of candidates among constituencies (i.e., schools). Each line contains the candidates that are elected in the same constituency, for instance:

Chocolate, Sweets
Banana, Strawberry
  • -q QUOTA, --quota QUOTA

The constituency quota, that is, the number of seats that can be filled by candidates in a single constituency, if constituencies are used.

  • -r [RANDOM [RANDOM ...]], --random [RANDOM [RANDOM ...]]

During the STV seat allocation process a random selection among candidates may be required, either to elect or to eliminate a candidate. The random selection can be carried out automatically, or manually. If a manual random selection is necessary, then the user specifies the -r switch. During the execution of the program, when the random selection occurs, the program will stop and will output a message informing the user that there is a missing value for a random selection among candidates. The user will re-run the program giving the index of the manually randomly selected candidate after the -r switch. If a second random selection is required, the program will again stop, and the user will re-run the program giving the indices of the manually selected candidates one after the other after the -r switch. And so on and so forth.

  • -l LOGLEVEL, --loglevel LOGLEVEL

The logging level, which can be either DEBUG or INFO (the default).

For an invocation like:

stv.py --ballots ballots.csv --constituencies constituencies.csv --seats 6 --quota 2 -n -l DEBUG

The output is a series of line, prefixed with the action taking place. Specifically:

^THRESHOLD

The election threshold.

@ROUND

The current counting round.

.COUNT

The count at the current counting round, as a semicolon separated list of candidate = count pairs.

+ELECT candidate

The candidate has been elected.

>TRANSFER from candidate1 to candidate2 n*w

A transfer of n votes from candidate1 to candidate2 using weight w.

-ELIMINATE 

The candidate has been eliminated because no candidate could be elected at this round, and this candidate has the smallest number of votes.

!QUOTA candidate

The candidate has been removed from the counting process because the quota has been reached.

~ZOMBIES candidates

The list of zombie candidates, that is, candidates that had been eliminated, but are brought back into the counting process because other candidates have been removed from it following quota restrictions.

*RANDOM candidate from [candidates] to +ELECT

The candidate has been randomly selected from the list of candidates for election.

*RANDOM candidate from [candidates] to -ELIMINATE

The candidate has been randomly selected from the list of candidates for elimination.

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