Beta release: Single Transferrable Vote based Elections
Robert Guthrie Fri 12 Jun 2026 9:00AMPublicSeen by 178We added this a month or two back, but I'm catching up on all the things I need to communicate and ask for feedback on.
We've developed Single Transferrable Vote style election polls in Loomio, with the help and input of the NYC DSA.
It should be considered Beta quality.
If you do decide to run an STV election with Loomio, I'll do my best to support you and fix any issues that show up. I don't expect any issues with recording votes - the complexity and newness is in how we calculate the results.
I recommend running a small test election and kicking the tires before launching it with your whole group.
https://help.loomio.com/en/user_manual/polls/stv/index.html
The help documentation is literally just AI generated. I apologise. If you take the time to give me feedback or ask questions, I'd be very grateful and be sure to do my best with it.
Actually now that I mention it.. we should probably run a fake election in here to test it out... I might launch one soon.
david raynerFri 12 Jun 2026 11:11AM
sorry...Robert for president..
must get the leader's name right. we respect you.
Robert GuthrieFri 12 Jun 2026 12:24PM
@david rayner minister of finance is not a popular position - that's very kind.
Scott Laugenour (he/him)Fri 12 Jun 2026 11:52AM
Good idea to run a test election. I will gladly participate in one.
Electing a board of reps
STV election by Robert Guthrie Closed Sun 14 Jun 2026 9:01PM
Thanks so much for participating in the STV election. This exercise was purely to kick the tires and get feedback.
The candidates were random noise, so it might not read super intuitively, however please give whatever feedback seems important from your perspective.
We're going to practice an election with 3 seats and 5 candidates. Voting open just for this weekend.
Vote by dragging candidates into your preferred order. Rank 1 is your most preferred candidate. You may rank as many or as few candidates as you like.
Results
Scottish STV, Droop quota (3 votes needed)
Elected
| Candidate | Round elected | First preferences | Final tally | Surplus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quorum McGee | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Votey McVoteface | 2 | 2 | 3.2 | 0.2 |
| Polly Delphi | 5 | 1 | 3.94 | 0.94 |
| Candidate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quorum McGee | 5 | - | - | - | - |
| Abstain Buttonsworth | 1 | 1.4 | 1.49 | 1.49 | - |
| Polly Delphi | 1 | 1.4 | 1.43 | 2.45 | 3.94 |
| Threadsworth | 1 | 1 | 1.03 | - | - |
| Votey McVoteface | 2 | 3.2 | - | - | - |
| Quota | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Robert GuthrieFri 12 Jun 2026 12:21PM
Note to Self: I did not drag the candidates above the line, just reordered in-place and the error was: min_score validation failure
Should be "Drag candidates above the line to rank them" or something
david raynerFri 12 Jun 2026 1:47PM
that felt quite natural....
Edward BaintonSat 13 Jun 2026 10:04PM
It did .
I don’t know how easy, but it would be a bit better for me if the line itself doesn’t respond to touch/drag. That was unintuitive: I expect to move the candidates, but by dragging the line by accident I almost inadvertently unvoted them. It should spring into place when I drag the candidate above it, but not be draggable itself
But this is a nice to have: it works well as is, it’s pretty obvious whether you’ve voted for all candidates or not (and great that you don’t have to vote for all of them)
Scott Laugenour (he/him)Sun 14 Jun 2026 1:12AM
One feature of my organization's STV voting is to include an explicit "None / No Other Candidate" option as a ballot choice. This allows a voter to explicitly declare a preference for either NONE or for a limited number of seats to be filled.
If I as a voter prefer that the position not be filled at all I would rank "None / No Other Candidate" as #1. I may also list preferences below that that if I wish to.
Alternatively, if I as a voter want the election to fill only 3 seats when there are 5 available seats to be elected I would rank "None / No Other Candidate" as number 4. I may also list preferences below that if I wish to.
Having such an explicit ballot choice is enshrined in our bylaws for all votes that are not YES/NO/ABSTAIN votes.
My organization presently simply places such a "None / No Other Candidate" choice on a Ranked Choice or STV ballot as if it was another "human" on the ballot. But I wonder if this option may have bearing on how Loomio presents/tabulates the STV voting.
Luke FleggSun 14 Jun 2026 1:57PM
I would like a toilet book of Mr Guthrie's placeholder text across various tests.
I don't think I've really understood the purpose of STV when we can just vote on each option separately with a lovely scale. What if I basically equally love Ms. Buttonsworth and Mx. Threadsworth, but despise the guts of the next candidate? I want to express the 'distance' of preference between them all..
I got really excited about the email notification for this for a moment, thinking it was adding the feature of transferring my vote to someone else (liquid/ delegative democracy) am I right in thinking there was an experiment with that once in Loomio?
I cannot believe how under served that space is. I've only been able to find like 1.5 apps on earth that allow me to create a Liquid democracy group/ community : /
david rayner ·Fri 12 Jun 2026 11:06AM
rob for president? i will be ur minister of finance...