Wright system

It was developed and written by Anthony van der Craats, a system analyst and life member of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia.

[1][2] The aim of the system is to provide an alternative to various methods of segmentation and distribution of preferences associated with the exclusion of a candidate from the count.

The main advantage of the Wright System is that it limits the distortion and bias in the vote that arises from the adopted methods of segmentation and distribution of preferences of excluded candidates.

Media Report Crikey: Casey Briggs ABC Electoral Analyst[5] Continuing Candidate means a candidate that has not been excluded from or declared not-elected in the process of the count Total Vote (TV) is the total number of ballot papers that express a valid preference allocated to candidates remaining in the count Value of the Vote (Vv) means the value allocated to each ballot paper as it progresses though the count.

It also refers to a vote which is a record in electronic format representing information and preference allocations of a ballot paper.

Vote means a mathematical representation and record of a ballot paper Preference means the number in ascending order that represents the order of voter’s preference attributed to a candidate for election as recorded on a ballot paper or data file.

Bulk exclusion means the method of determining the number of candidates which can be simultaneously excluded from the count Running Sum means the progressive calculation the sum of all candidates total votes from lowest to highest in descending order Quota Breakpoint means highest running sum value that is less than half of the Quota Running Breakpoint means the candidate with a total vote value that is greater than the associated running sum of all candidates with a lower total vote.

All ballot papers must be checked for formality and reconciled with the electoral roll and polling place returns following the completion of the data-entry process and prior to the commencement of the counting procedure outlined below.

Any candidate who has received a Total value of votes (Ctvv) equal to or greater than the Quota (Q) is to be provisionally declared elected.

Any ballot paper that does not express a valid preference for a continuing candidate greater than the preference allocated to the candidates whose surplus is to be distributed shall be set aside and declared exhausted-with-value and its value added to the total value of exhausted ballot papers recorded for the relevant transaction in the count.