Supplementary Vote System (SV)

Voting at the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner By-Election

Most elections in the UK are based on a single count with the candidates having the highest number of votes overall being elected.

A system called Supplementary Vote (SV) is used for electing Mayors and Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners in the UK.

How it differs

The ballot paper asks for a first and second choice.

There are two columns of boxes alongside the candidates’ names on the ballot paper.

• the first column is for you to mark your favourite candidate with an X
• the second column is for you to mark your second favourite with an X

You do not have to mark a second choice if you do not wish to so you can only mark for your favourite candidate if you prefer.

The difference is in the count

There are two stages to a count if there are three or more candidates. If there are only two candidates on the ballot paper, then only the first stage of a count is needed.

For the first stage, all the votes marked in the first-choice column are counted for each candidate and if one candidate gets over 50% of the total votes cast then they are elected.

If no candidate gets over 50% of the total votes cast, the top two candidates with the most votes continue to the second stage and the rest of the candidates are eliminated.

During the second stage, the ballot papers counted in favour of the top two candidates in stage one are placed to one side.

The ballot papers of the eliminated candidates are now looking at only their 2nd choice of candidate.

• if the 2nd choice on the ballot paper has also been eliminated then it is not counted and put to one side,
• if the 2nd choice on the ballot paper is for one of the two remaining candidates, then the votes are added to their first-round totals.

The candidate with the most votes at this stage is declared the winner.