Editing Single transferable vote (section)

== District magnitudes and proportionality ==
Formally, STV satisfies a fairness criterion known as [[proportionality for solid coalitions]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tideman |first=Nicolaus |date=March 1995 |title=The Single Transferable Vote |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=27–38 |doi=10.1257/jep.9.1.27 |issn=0895-3309 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Historically, the district magnitude under STV elections has ranged from two (the absolute minimum) to 21 (currently being used in New South Wales, Australia) and 37 (currently being used in [[2025 Western Australian state election|Western Australia]]). In higher-level government elections district magnitude is usually in the 3 to 5 or 7 range, with New South Wales and West Australia being obvious exceptions.<ref>Electoral Commission of Malta (gov.mt)</ref><ref>constituency-review-report-2023.pdf (amazonaws.com), p. 5</ref> In local government elections such as city councils, STV elections are often held citywide with district magnitudes in the 6 to 13 range, or wards may be used, usually electing 2 to 5 members in each ward.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://electoral.gov.mt/ElectionResults/LocalCouncil?v=808 | title=Malta Councils Election}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mayor and Councillors |url=https://localgovernmentdivision.gov.mt/en/lc/Mosta/Pages/The-Local-Council/Mayor-and-Councillors.aspx |access-date=30 January 2024 |website=localgovernmentdivision.gov.mt |language=mt |archive-date=11 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211201850/https://localgovernmentdivision.gov.mt/en/lc/Mosta/Pages/The-Local-Council/Mayor-and-Councillors.aspx}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=28 March 2022 |title=Scotland council elections 2022: A really simple guide |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60764222 |access-date=30 January 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=ChoicePlus Pro Council Round 1 Report | url=https://www.cambridgema.gov/Election2023/Official/Council%20Round1.htm | access-date=28 December 2024 | website=www.cambridgema.gov}}</ref>

If the Droop quota is used, for example, in a nine-seat district, the quota is 10% (plus one vote); in a three-seat district, it is 25% (plus one vote). The quota acts in some ways as an electoral threshold and the Droop quota in a district is a significantly higher proportion of district votes than the usual electoral threshold in use for most party-list PR systems, but the Droop quota in a district covering just part of a jurisdiction may be set at as few votes as a smaller proportion of the votes cast across a whole jurisdiction.

District elections grow more proportionally representative in direct relation to the increase in the number of seats to be elected in a constituency{{Snd}}the more seats, the more the distribution of the seats in a district will be proportional. For example, in a three-seat STV election using the [[Hare quota]] of <math>({\rm \mbox{valid votes cast}}) / ({\rm \mbox{seats to fill}})</math>, a candidate or party with at least one-third of the votes is guaranteed to win a seat. In a seven-seat STV contest using the Hare quota, any candidate with one-seventh of the vote (either first preferences alone, or a combination of first preferences and lower-ranked preferences transferred from other candidates) will win a seat. Many systems use the Droop quota, which is even smaller than the Hare for the same number of seats, as it produces more proportional results.

Because of this quota-based fairness, under STV it is extremely rare for a party to take a majority of the seats in a district without the support of a majority of the district's voters. Additionally, a large majority of voters (generally around 80 percent or more) see their vote used to elect someone. Thus under STV, the members who make up a majority of a district's elected members are supported directly by a majority of the voters in the district.