In the upcoming moderator election we each get three votes - a first, second and third choice. In order to use these effectively, I would like to understand the mechanics of how they will be used to determine the election's outcome.
A side panel on the election page says
We will calculate the winners using OpenSTV with the Meek STV method,
but unfortunately that second link leads to a section on a Wikipedia page that assumes you've already read the quite substantial amount of text about other transferrable vote systems that preceeds it, so it's not very self-contained and not very easy to understand.
In the interests of us all understanding the rules of the election, I'm wondering whether someone who's already done the work of understanding it would be willing to post a brief self-contained outline of how it works. I'll attempt to do that myself if I get a chance in the next couple of days, but with only three days until the election it might be quicker if someone else can do it.
(The reason it's important is because it affects tactical voting systems. The aim of STV is to make tactical voting less important, i.e. you can put the person you like the most as your first choice, even if you don't think they're likely to win, because your vote will carry over to your other choices if they don't. I would like to fully understand how that process works in this particular version of the system.)
