Historical Background

The KPFK Elections Working Group (KEWG) was active from 2003 to 2008. This site is being maintained as a resource to the Pacifica community.

KEWG was adopted as a working group of the KPFK Local Station Board (LSB) Governance Committee in March, 2005. Active members were: Fred Blair, Art Stasney, Jack VanAken and Roger Zimmerman.

The KEWG tallied numerous small elections for the KPFK LSB concerning election of officers, directors and committee memberships, often under chaotic circumstances. Also, upon occasion, the KEWG was called upon to tally certain elections on behalf of the Pacifica National Board. On no occasion was a vote count performed by the KEWG successfully challenged. Additionally, the KEWG declined an invitation to participate in the disastrous 2007 KPFK Listener Delegates tally, having identified, in advance, several likely problems with the methodology proposed for that event.

In 2005 KEWG members Art Stasney and Jack VanAken identified a significant flaw in the ChoicePlus Pro tally algorithm which has since been corrected. The flaw (or "bug") had to do with how the software handled duplicate rankings, a unique situation existing only in Pacifica's peculiar implementation of Single Transferable Vote method. The bug in the software has subsequently been repaired.

Email the website administrator at jackv@123mail.org

Links to Proportional Representation and election-related materials

Proportional Representation Library

Center for Voting and Democracy

Wikipedia on STV

STV as explained by the Government of New Zealand

The Electoral Reform Society

 

STV Software

ChoicePlus

OpenSTV

STV Handbook

KEWG has written a manual for tallying an STV election, especially tailored to elections by Pacifica boards and committees.

STV for Small Elections Manual all in one document. (PDF, 1.7MB)

Or you may download the Manual in separate chapters:

Table of Contents (PDF, 68KB)

1. Introduction (PDF, 104KB)

2. STV in Perspective (PDF, 100KB)

3. Preparation and Setup for Election Tallies (PDF, 300KB)

4. Ballots (PDF, 652KB)

5. Election Hand Tally, Step by Step (PDF, 348KB)

6. Small Mock Election for Hand Tally (PDF, 488KB)

7. Election Results Documentation (PDF, 240KB)

The Pacifica Bylaws

Here are the Pacifica Bylaws in two convenient formats. A PDF version with clickable table of contents (364kb), and a browser navigable version in HTML.