THE ALTERNATIE VOTE. 369 



the first votes and that of the first and second combuied — one gets 

 a third Hst, in which the first votes are counted twice, and the 

 second or alternate votes once. For the first of the two lists 

 contained the first votes only, the second contained first votes and 

 second votes, and from this third list, on the third count, are 

 struck off the applicants who get less than the average. 



Say there are ten electors, and on the first count we find that 

 A, B, C, respectively get the following number of first votes, 

 622 and the following second votes 



I I 8 



A here has an absolute majority of the votes given and is 

 declared elected : first case (8). 



Take now another case where with ten electors the number of 



ABC 

 first votes are as follows : 4 4 2 ; no one has an absolute 



majority, so we add the number 6 2 2 of ist and 2nd votes, 



getting 10 6 4 



Here C has only four out of twenty votes, less than one-half 

 the number of electors — an absolute minority — so C falls out, 

 and his two alternate votes are given as marked to A, who thus 

 gets 6 first votes and is elected (9). 



If now we add up all the first preferences in these 



ABC 

 two cases, 20 voters, we get first votes 10 6 4. No one 

 has an absolute majority, more than half the 

 twenty votes; so we add up ist and 2nd 

 preferences getting ist and 2nd preferences 14 12 14. No one 



has less than half the number of voters, 



so we add the two lines, getting ... ... 24 18 18. Here 



B and C are both below the average, so A is elected (2-^) and 

 (10). 



If B had received 20 votes, just the average, and C 16 votes, 

 we should have eliminated or excluded C, as he has less than the 

 average, and have distributed his four first votes, as marked, 3 to 

 B and i to A. Thus A having now 1 1 first votes is elected in 

 preference to B with 9 firs:t votes {2;^). 



In selecting the best of three applicants, we have thus four 

 cases where we have absolute certainty that the one of whom the 

 majority of the electors most approve will be selected : — 



First, — where he has an absolute majority of their votes (8). 



Second, — where an absolute minority of the electors vote by 

 first and second preferences added together for one of the appli- 

 cants, who is, therefore, rejected at the first count, and his alternate 

 votes come into use at the next scrutiny, when on every voting 

 paper the name of the excluded candidate is supposed to be 

 erased ; and his alternate votes are transferred to the other can- 

 didates (9). 



Third, — where counting the first vote as two and the second 

 preference as one, and adding both the first vote and the pre- 

 ferences up, we find that two of the three candidates have not 

 secured the mean or average of all the votes ; the third, being the 

 highest of the three, is elected at once, without any transfer of 



