Did you know STV is used in over 340 jurisdictions in 7 countries?
The Single Transferable Vote, contrary to opponents' assertions that it's used in only two countries, is actually used in over 340 jurisdictions in at least seven countries around the world.
It's used in the following places (a good overview of the history and use of STV is available on Wikipedia):
- Ireland (122 jurisdictions): national parliament, European parliament, all other levels of government (), including 2 regional assemblies, 4 provinces, 29 county councils, 5 city councils, 5 borough councils, and 75 town councils.
- Malta (70 jurisdictions): national parliament, European parliament, 68 local councils
- Australia (7 jurisdictions): Senate, state and territory lower houses in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, state and territory upper houses in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and South Australia (6 of the 8 states and territories).
- Scotland (32 jurisdictions): all 32 local council elections
- Northern Ireland (28 jurisdictions): Northern Irish Assembly, European Parliament, and all 26 local city, district and borough councils
- New Zealand (~80 jurisdictions): mainly health boards, but about 9 or 10 cities as well, including the capital, Wellington, and a number of others
- USA: Cambridge MA has used STV continuously for most of the last century; more recently, Minneapolis MN and Davis CA have both chosen by referendum to start using STV. Numerous cities in the US including San Francisco and Oakland have adopted or expect to adopt single member preferential voting (frequently called Instant Runoff Voting or Choice Voting). This is essentially STV applied to single seat contests.
- India: Senate
There are some excellent articles on STV in practice in various countries available at the Electoral Knowledge Network's website. See in particular articles on Ireland (STV), Malta (STV) and Australia (Alternative Vote).
The ACE Project article on Ireland describes the conclusions of the 2002 all-party parliamentary committee, which considered the arguments for and against changing the system. It concluded that "the public was strongly attached to STV, that a change to any other system would reduce the power of the individual voter, and that some of the alleged failings of the political system for which critics blamed STV were caused by other factors. As this conclusion indicates, there is no significant body of opinion in favour of amending or replacing the existing system."