Welcome to the voting tool
This voting tool will help you to hold your own elections and work out who gets elected.
Before you can use the voting tool though you need to understand how the tool and preferential voting works. To help you we have already held a small election and with your help we can determine who gets elected!
- 25 people have voted in this election for their favourite fruit.
- They have filled out a ballot by ordering the fruit from '1' their most preferred to '5' their least preferred.
- You need to look at each ballot paper and complete the count - Remember, to start this means counting first preference for each vote.
You will need to have a pen and paper to help you with the tally of the votes.
Click OK to begin the tutorial.
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear Grape
To the left are the candidates in this election, they are:
Apple, Banana, Orange, Pear and Grape.
In this election there has been 25 votes. For a candidate (a fruit) to be elected it must receive an absolute majority - more than half of the votes cast.
For this example that is 13 votes.
Lets look at the first preferences'.
All ballot papers - First preference count
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Apple0
Banana0
Orange0
Pear0
Grape0
Oops, it looks like you didn't enter in any votes for the candidates!
Click OK and fill in their initial vote count - use the ballot papers provided by clicking the VIEW BALLOT button.
Oops, not all the votes have been counted (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the vote count.
Oops, too many votes have been counted (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the initial votes count.
Hmm.. Not quite - there are twenty five but they're not next to the correct candidates.
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the initial votes count.
To be elected a candidate must have an absolute majority. For this election that is 13 votes - does any candidate have 13 votes?
As there is no candidate with an absolute majority click START REDISTRIBUTION to continue.
Are you sure a candidate has an absolute majority? Have another look at the Tally Board
Oops, not all the votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Oops, too many votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Hmm.. Not quite - there are twenty five but they're not next to the correct candidates.
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
To be elected a candidate must have an absolute majority. For this election that is 13 votes - does any candidate have 13 votes?
Are you sure a candidate has an absolute majority? Have another look at the Tally Board
As there is no candidate with an absolute majority click START REDISTRIBUTION to continue.
Oops, not all the votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Oops, too many votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Hmm.. Not quite - there are twenty five but they're not next to the correct candidates.
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
To be elected a candidate must have an absolute majority. For this election that is 13 votes - does any candidate have 13 votes?
Are you sure a candidate has an absolute majority? Have another look at the Tally Board
As there is no candidate with an absolute majority click START REDISTRIBUTION to continue.
Oops, not all the votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Oops, too many votes have been distributed (there should be 25 in total).
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
Hmm.. Not quite - there are twenty five but they're not next to the correct candidates.
Click OK and use the ballots provided to fill in the distributed votes.
To be elected a candidate must have an absolute majority. For this election that is 13 votes - does any candidate have 13 votes?
Are you sure no candidate has an absolute majority? Have another look at the Tally Board
Congratulations on understanding that a majority of votes has been obtained!
Apple was elected for obtaining the absolute majority of votes (more than half) of all of the candidates (fruit) involved.
| Majority required | Apple's Total | Total Votes |
| 13 | 13 | 25 |
Now that you have a good idea about how all this works, when you've held your own election you can now use the Voting tool to count your votes.
Click OK to look back over this election, or click MENU to jump to the menu.
Happy voting (and counting)
Ballot papers - Orange
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Apple0
Banana0
Orange0
Pear0
Grape0
Ballot papers - Pear
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Apple0
Banana0
Orange0
Pear0
Grape0
Ballot papers - Banana
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Ballot paper
Apple0
Banana0
Orange0
Pear0
Grape0
Tally Board
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear GrapeThe Count
7 5 2 4 71st Distribution
1 1 0 02nd Distribution
2 1 13rd Distribution
3 4Tally Board
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear GrapeThe Count
7 5 2 4 71st Distribution
1 1 0 02nd Distribution
2 1 13rd Distribution
Tally Board
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear GrapeThe Count
7 5 2 4 71st Distribution
1 1 0 02nd Distribution
3rd Count
10 7 8Tally Board
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear GrapeThe Count
7 5 2 4 71st Distribution
2nd Count
8 6 4 7Tally Board
Candidates
Apple Banana Orange Pear GrapeThe Count
Oops, you accidentally clicked continue without entering any of your Candidate's names! Click OK and fill them in.
Oops, it looks like you accidentally only entered one candidate's name to participate in this election. Click OK and enter in some more candidates to continue.
Please double check that the names have been listed in a random order. If they have been added in a random order click OK and then CONTINUE to proceed.
Oops, it looks like you didn't enter in any votes for your candidates! Click OK and fill in their initial vote count, then click BEGIN to start the distribution!
Oops, it looks like you accidentally only entered in the votes of one candidate. Click OK to enter in votes for your other candidates, then click BEGIN to continue.
Ooops, you're vote distribution is incorrect, please recount and try again.
We don't have anyone elected yet!
Someone needs to have the absolute majority (more than 50%) of votes. To continue the count we must move the votes of the candidate who has the least votes.
There are two candidates with the equal fewest votes so at this stage please place these candidates names into a hat and draw one of these names out. Click the NAME of the candidate who was drawn to knock them out of the election.
We don't have anyone elected yet!
Someone needs to have the absolute majority (more than 50%) of votes. To continue the count we must move the votes of the candidate who has the least votes.
There are three candidates with the equal fewest votes so at this stage please place these candidates names into a hat and draw one of these names out. Click the NAME of the candidate who was drawn to knock them out of the election.
We don't have anyone elected yet!
Someone needs to have the absolute majority (more than 50%) of votes. To continue the count we must move the votes of the candidate who has the least votes.
There are four candidates with the equal fewest votes so at this stage please place these candidates names into a hat and draw one of these names out. Click the NAME of the candidate who was drawn to knock them out of the election.
We don't have anyone elected yet!
Someone needs to have the absolute majority (more than 50%) of votes. To continue the count we must move the votes of the candidate who has the least votes.
There are five candidates with the equal fewest votes so at this stage please place these candidates names into a hat and draw one of these names out. Click the NAME of the candidate who was drawn to knock them out of the election.
Congratulations on a successful election!
A special congratulations goes to
for obtaining the majority of votes (more than half) of all of the candidates involved.
To print your results click the PRINT button, otherwise click OK to close this window and continue to view your results on the screen.
| Majority required | Total | Total Votes |
Unfortunately it looks like your two remaining candidates
and
are currently tied with equal votes.
To find out who should be elected you will need to hold a new election.
If you would like to print your results for this election click the PRINT button. After you have printed you can click the RESET button and start your new election.
If you would like to start a new elction and don't want to print, click the OK button.
Enter in the names of your Candidates by replacing the " [ enter name ] " with the candidate's name. Be sure you place them in random order.
Count the number of first preference votes each candidate has received and enter them into the field next to their name.
It's time to redistribute the votes of the candidate who has the least number of votes (not voters) at this point in the election. These votes are transferred to another candidate according to the voter's wishes. Look at the number 2 and move the vote to that candidate.
It's time to redistribute the votes of the candidate who has the least number of votes at this point in the election to another candidate according to the voter's wishes. Look at the number 2 and move the vote to that candidate. if the number 2 candidate is 'knocked out' look for the number 3.
It's time to redistribute the votes of the candidate who has the least number of votes at this point in the election to another candidate according to the voter's wishes. Look at the number 2 and move the vote to that candidate. if the number 2 candidate is 'knocked out' look for the number 3.
Candidates
The Count
1st Distribution
2nd Distribution