THE TRANSFERABLE VOTE IN ELECTIONS. 171 



These expressed preferences enable the returning officer to transfer 

 the vote to the candidate to whom it can be of use if the first name 

 on it is that of a candidate already elected by the time that vote 

 is used ; or is the name of a candidate already excluded, because 

 he was lowest on the poll ; and thus all non-effective votes of the 

 present system can be made effective and the member receives 

 more than double the number of votes that fall to his share now. 



8. The work of the returning- officer requires careful study 

 of and attention to the rules, by which the at present non-effective 

 surplus votes are distributed according- to the voters' preferences, 

 and so made effective with mathematical correctness and precision, 

 and the experiences of these officers at Johannesburg; and Pretoria 

 show that with due care this work can be easily done in a short 

 time. This done, he has so to distribute the at present non-effective 

 votes of the unsuccessful candidates, rendering- them also effective. 

 The quota, or minimum number of votes a member must 

 obtain to secure election, is found by adding- one to the quotient, 

 g-ot by dividing the number of valid votes by one more than the 

 number of members to be elected. Thus if lOo voters have to 

 elect one member, we divide loo by i + i, that is by 2, and add 

 I to the quotient, which in this case is fifty, giving- us fifty-one ; 

 which number the successful candidate must secure. If there are 

 two members to be elected, we divide 100 by 3, getting on the 

 addition of one, 34. We neglect fractions, and work only with 

 whole numbers, we have one vote one voter, and the voter cannot 

 be divided. If the two members get 34 votes each out of 100 

 votes, only 32 votes are left for the next highest candidate, two 

 less than the quota, so he cannot get in. This number, which is 

 the minimum number the member must secure in an election, is 

 called the quota ; it is the minimum number which makes a candi- 

 date's election secure, and it is the number of votes which all mem- 

 bers, as far as possible, must secure in elections under the system 

 of the transferable vote. 



g. In the town council we have most distinctly an administra- 

 tive body, to whom the ratepayers hand over the control of matters 

 common to them all, such as matters relating to streets, buildings, 

 water supply, sewage, lighting, locomotion, public parks and all 

 sanitary matters and other common interests. 



These common interests will be best administered when the 

 council, as fully as possible, represents, in the sense of resembHng, 

 the ratepayers, the whole of the ratepayers, not merely a majority 

 of the ratepayers, or ten ward majorities. 



The majority must and will rule, but the minority are entitled 

 to their due proportional representation on the council, and the 

 majority on the council should be proportionate to the majority 

 of the voters ; and it is to the advantage of the town that this 

 should be so ; and also that all sections of the ratepayers numerous 

 enough to give a member the quota should have one as their repre- 

 sentative. 



In Cape Town the ratepayers are divided into three classes 

 accordmg to the value of their property, and the voting papers 

 of these three classes are marked as giving the value of one vote, 



