176 THE TRANSFERABLE VOTE IX ELECTIONS. 



were 87 voters of one party, "A," 42 of another, "B," and three 

 Independents. 



Voting in the usual way, the "A" party could have returned 

 all eight members, even had the Independents voted with the "B" 

 party. 



If the voting, under the new system with the transferable 

 vote, were on strictly party lines, the "A" party was sure of five 

 members, and the "B" party of two ; for any candidate who got 15 

 votes was sure of his election, provided the electors put his name 

 first on their voting papers. As each party happened to have 

 twelve votes over, in addition to their five and two quotas respec- 

 tively, it was possible for the Independents, or any two of them, 

 to give the eighth member to either party. The result was the 

 return of six of the "A" party and two of the "B" party, and we 

 got the eight men most preferred by the electors. Every voter 

 voted, the large remainder of 12 over eight quotas, which 132 gave, 

 made the largest possible percentage of votes that could be effective 

 91 per cent. This was secured ; and we may be pretty sure that 

 each of the 12 votes which necessarily were not used, contained 

 the name of at least one of the members. The result was as satis- 

 factory as it could possibly be, the members representing the two 

 parties as nearly proportionately as the numbers permitted. And 

 almost certainly the name of one member at least was on every 

 voting paper. 



22. In the Cape Town Municipal Election of 1909, about 

 5,000 voters in seven wards elected seven members from seventeen 

 candidates. The Citizens' Guild and the Ratepayers' Association 

 each ran a ticket, and secured five and two members respectively. 

 The effective votes were 42 per cent., the surplus, non-effective 

 votes 13 per cent., and the minority non-effective votes 45 per 

 cent. The successful candidates received 55 per cent, of first 

 votes and about 39 per cent, of the voters on the roll voted. 

 Thus only 16 per cent, of the voters on the roll elected the mem- 

 bers by their effective votes. 



23. In the Johannesburg Municipal Election of 1909, the 

 Transferable vote was tried for the first time, for electing ten 

 members from 22 candidates, the town voting as one constituency. 

 11,788 valid votes were given, the quota was 1,072, and the 

 remainder over ten quotas was 1,068, only six less than another 

 quota, 9 per cent, of the votes, so that the utmost possible per- 

 centage of effective votes was 91 per cent, of all the valid votes 

 given. 



Johannesburg Municipal Election, 1909. 



Percentages. Number of Votes 



The members got 67.5 of all the votes as effective 



first v^otes 7>957 



There were i.i of surplus effective votes 132 



There were 20.8 of minority effective votes 2,451 



89.4 10,540 



There were 10.6 of unused votes 1,248 



100 11,788 



