so contrived as to allow the electors to group themselves into 654
constituencies, each group bound only by the tie of voluntary
association, and gathered from every corner of the Kingdom. The total
number of votes cast (about a million) was to be divided by 654, and the
quotient, say about 1,500, would be the quota or number of votes
required to elect a member. But some of the candidates would naturally
receive more votes than the quota, and a great many more would receive
less. How were all the votes to be equally divided among 654 members so
that each should secure exactly the quota? The single transferable vote
was proposed to attain this result. Each elector's vote was to count for
one candidate only, but he was allowed to say in advance to whom he
would wish his vote transferred in case it could not be used for his
first choice. Each ballot paper was, therefore, to contain the names of
a number of candidates in order of preference--1, 2, 3, &c. Then all the
candidates having more than a quota of first choices were to have the
surplus votes taken from them and transferred to the second choice on
the papers, or if the second choice already had enough votes, to the
third choice, and so on. When all the surpluses were distributed a
certain number of members would be declared elected, each with a quota
of votes. The candidates who had received the least amount of support
were then to be gradually eliminated. The lowest candidate would be
first rejected, and his votes transferred to the next available
preference on his ballot papers; then the next lowest would be rejected,
and so on till all the votes were equally distributed among the 654
members. Such was the Hare system as propounded by its author. The
electors were to divide themselves into voluntary groups; then the
groups which were too large were to be cut down by transferring the
surplus votes, and the smaller groups were to be excluded and the votes
also transferred until the groups were reduced to 654 equal
constituencies. These two processes, transferring surplus votes and
transferring votes from excluded candidates, are the main features of
the system. Mr. Hare's rules for carrying them out are drawn up in the
form of a proposed electoral law, and in the different editions of his
work the clauses vary somewhat. They are also complicated by an
impossible attempt to retain the local nomenclature of members. As
regards surplus votes it was provided that the ball