Single Transferable Vote and Instant Runoff Voting Software
OpenSTV is open-source software for implementing the single transferable vote and other voting methods such as instant runoff voting, Condorcet voting, and approval voting. OpenSTV is the only open-source software that implements the single transferable vote exactly as used by governments, including Scotland and the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. These methods have been extensively verified against other software and/or actual election results.
Organizations can use OpenSTV to implement their own elections. First, the organization must adopt a voting method. Second, the organization must conduct the vote, and this will most likely be done with paper ballots. Third, the ballots must be entered into the OpenSTV program. Finally, you can use OpenSTV to count the votes and determine the winners of the election.
OpenSTV will run on MS Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. To download OpenSTV to your computer, select the download link at the top of the page. Please send questions to the email list:
openstv at googlegroups.com
That's actually the title of a paper that Douglas Woodall published in Voting matters back in 2003. Woodall's introduction says, in part:
Announcing OpenSTV version 1.5 -- Software for computing the single
transferable vote, instant runoff voting, Condorcet, approval, and many
other voting systems. More details and download links are at
http://www.OpenSTV.org.
The most significant changes in this release are the following:
-- Improved format of election results
-- No limit on the number of candidates (previously was limited to 255
candidates)
-- Election methods are now done as plugins so users can add their own
methods (although only for advanced users at this point).
-- Cambridge STV can save the winner's ballots in files for determining
replacements after a vacancy
-- Added statutes of some rules to the documentation
-- Added draft of New Zealand Meek (work in progress)
-- Added new method called QPQ
Tim Fletcher has created an easy-to-use online Google app called Instant STV. With his app you specify a ballot file, select one of three methods (ERS97, Meek, and Warren), and request output in text or HTML. His app allows you to try OpenSTV before installing it on your computer.
The desktop version of OpenSTV has additional features that are not supported in Tim's app, such as numerous additional counting methods and the ability to create and edit ballot files.
Cornell University (my alma mater times two) recently used OpenSTV to count the votes for its election of the student member of its Board of Trustees. Cornell previously used an outside vendor to collect and count the votes. Now, Cornell uses its own system to collect the votes and uses OpenSTV to do the counting.
The Cornell Chronicle posted an article about the election and touting the benefits of OpenSTV:
Here is a sampling of organizations that have used OpenSTV to conduct an election as found in a Google search. Organizations of students and computer programmers (and in one case, both) make up nearly the entire list.
- Leeds Metropolitan Student Union
- Zope Foundation
- Maemo.org Community Council election
- Apache Foundation
- University College London Union
- OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)
- VoterMedia.Org at University of British Columbia
- Associated Students of the University of California, Davis
- League of Professional System Administrators
- The Computer Science Departmental Society for York University (HackSoc)
- OpenSolaris Board
