664 METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. 



in due order downwards, entitled to priority in handling, and 

 each grade expressing a greater degree of preference the higher 

 it is. Our rules must provide that every first-choice vote 'must 

 be counted and made effective if possible firstly; then every 

 available second-choice on surplus votes and on votes for un- 

 successful candidates must be simultaneously examined, and if 

 possible, made efTective before any third choices are examined, 

 and so on. The second-choice surplus votes are fractional votes, 

 the unused portions of each of the votes the surplus holder 

 received. 



8. Humphreys' and Pirn's Support of Heading 6. — Both 

 Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Pirn, as we have seen, pages 662-3, point 

 out that as many as possible of the first-choice votes, and of the 

 successive higher choices, must be used if we are to carry out 

 the voters' wishes. In this way only can we find out 'the mem- 

 bers most preferred. 



9. Hare's Quota A'ecessary to Carry No. 6 oiil. — No. 6 deals^ 

 with " The necessity of counting as many First Choices as pos- 

 sible, and of treating alike each grade of choice on all Ballot 

 Papers.'' This we can do only by the use of Hare's 

 cjuota ; by it alone can we make use of the highest 

 possible number of first-choice votes and of the suc- 

 cessive higher-choice votes. Hare's quota enables us to use 

 more of these than we can do with Droop's quota ; it enables us 

 to use the highest possible number that can be used. Droop's 

 quoita makes use of the smallest possible number of these first 

 and other high choices that can be used. It is by Hare's quota alone 

 that we can, with the transferable vote, find out the members 

 most preferred by the voters, which is the very first thing we 

 have to do when preparing to count the votes in an election by 

 the transferable vote. This is a work that has not to be done 

 in elections by the non-transferable vote. In these elections we 

 get the result at once l)y counting the votes by Droop's quota. 

 With the transferable vote we must first allot the ballot-papers 

 to the candidates best entitled to them. To do this we must 

 use not Droop's, but Hare's quota, and in doing it we find not 

 only which are the votes to which each candidate has a better 

 right than any other candidate, but how many votes each candi- 

 date is entitled to, and which, therefore, are the members most 

 preferred by the voters. 



Just because by Droop's quota we find out the smallest possible 

 number of votes that will elect each member, we cannot use it to 

 find out the greatest possible number of first and higher choice 

 votes each candidate can obtain, and this is the information we 

 must have to find out who are the members most preferred by 

 all the voters, and to secure Proportional Re])resentation. 



With Droop's quota the largest possible number of votes 

 are non-effective, and take no part in electing the members. With 

 Hare's quota the smallest possible number of votes are nof 

 counted, and are not given to the member who has more right 

 to them than any other candidate. 



