K KPRKSKNTATIOV. 



385 



Tt was now tilt- ihity of the returning- orticcr to ascertain the 

 luunljer of votes, t^^chnically called the "(juota," sutticient to leturii a 

 candidate. Tn a single-niembei- constituency the "<ju(»ta" would be 

 t)ne-half of the votes recorded + 1. in a two -nieniber constituency it 

 Would be one-third + 1, and in a tive-member constituenc}', i.e. our 

 case, it would therefore l)e one-sixth -h 1. The returning officer had 

 therefore to divide the number of valid votes, i.f. 12,398, by fi, which 

 made the quota 2067. As both Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and 

 Keir Hardie had secured more than the quota they were declared 

 elected. Indeed, Sir Henry obtained more than two quotas. The 

 next step was the ti-ansference of the surplus votes of these two, 

 because in the absence of such a provision their popularity would 

 have injured the chances of their colleagues. The votes were ti'ans- 

 ferred in the order of preference, and a start was made with Campbell- 

 Bannerman's. Naturally, as Keii' Hardie had been declared elected 

 and required no more votes, no notice was taken of those ballot-papers 

 marked '2. In the sorting of Campbell-Bannerman's votes it w^as neces- 

 .sary to sort out the papers into bundles giving the order of preference 

 when the following result was obtained : — 



The first column of this table shows the total number of Campbell- 

 Bannerman's papers on which the particular candidate whose name is 

 given was the next preference. Incidentally it shows that on fifteen 

 papers no preference was indicated, .so that the total number of 

 votes to be taken into consideration in transferring the surplus was 

 4891 less 15 = 4876. The ratio of vi>tes retained and transfeired is 

 arrived at by performing three simple calculations. For instjince^ 



