This election was conducted for the Sierra Student Coalition by FairVote.
If you have comments about this page, please contact jerdonek@fairvote.org.
Shall the SSC change its name from the "Sierra Student Coalition" to the "Student Sierra Club"?
Two-thirds (66.7%) threshold required for passage.
| Yes | 46 | 55.4% |
| No | 37 | 44.6% |
| Votes | 83 | 100.0% |
| Undervotes | 1 | N/A |
| Total | 84 | N/A |
55.4% does not meet the threshold, so the referendum does not pass.
Seven (7) candidates to be elected using single transferable voting (STV), also known as ranked choice voting (RCV). There were 12 candidates. The winners are:
See below for a brief description of RCV and the winning threshold, the full results and candidate list, and some stats.
Here is the ballot file.
"While the right to rule belongs to the majority, the right to representation belongs to all."
Ranked choice voting makes every vote count — representing the greatest possible number of voters fairly. A multi-seat body elected using RCV is an accurate cross-section of the entire voting body, including majority and minority views alike.
How does it work? Voters rank the candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on. If your first choice loses or wins with votes to spare, your unused vote goes to your second choice. This continues until all candidates are elected.
In this kind of multi-seat election, RCV is a proportional voting system. In a single-winner election where a majority is necessary to win, RCV is also called instant runoff voting.
Candidates win in ranked choice voting by reaching the winning threshold. Take the number of votes in the first round (82) and divide by one more than the number of seats (7 + 1 = 8). Add one to this number and remove the fraction to obtain the winning threshold!
| Votes | Seats | V/(S+1)+1 | Threshold | ||
| Winning Threshold Calculation | 82 | 7 | 11.25 | 11.00 |
In English, the winning threshold is the fewest number of votes a candidate needs to be guaranteed a seat.
(In our case of 82 voters, at most 7 candidates can each get 11 votes. A lower threshold of 10 would allow 8 candidates. So the threshold is 11.)
In ranked choice voting the ballots are counted in rounds.
Winners are shown in bold. Note that candidate Nathan Wyeth withdrew before the tally, so rankings indicating him were skipped and not counted.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |||||
| Rachel Ackoff | 21.000 | -10.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | |||
| Erica Stout | 16.000 | 16.000 | -5.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | |||
| Sasha Shahidi | 9.000 | +0.952 | 9.952 | +0.938 | 10.890 | 10.890 | 10.890 | ||
| Andrew Nazdin | 6.000 | 6.000 | +1.250 | 7.250 | +2.625 | 9.875 | 9.875 | ||
| Nora Sharp | 4.000 | +2.857 | 6.857 | +0.938 | 7.795 | 7.795 | 7.795 | ||
| Juan Martinez | 6.000 | +0.952 | 6.952 | +0.938 | 7.890 | 7.890 | +1.000 | 8.890 | |
| Katherine McEachern | 5.000 | +2.857 | 7.857 | 7.857 | 7.857 | +1.000 | 8.857 | ||
| Bret O'Connor | 7.000 | 7.000 | +0.312 | 7.313 | 7.313 | 7.313 | |||
| Nick Knobbe | 3.000 | +1.905 | 4.905 | 4.905 | 4.905 | +1.000 | 5.905 | ||
| Juliana Williams | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 | 3.000 | -3.000 | 0.000 | |||
| Arjun Shukla | 2.000 | 2.000 | +0.625 | 2.625 | -2.625 | 0.000 | |||
| Nathan Wyeth* | |||||||||
| Continuing | 82.000 | -0.476 | 81.524 | 0.000 | 81.524 | 0.000 | 81.524 | 0.000 | 81.524 |
| Exhausted | 0.000 | +0.476 | 0.476 | 0.476 | 0.476 | 0.476 | |||
| Undervotes | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | ||||
| Total | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 |
Round 1-5 Notes: Ackoff and Stout both win in round 1, with the surplus votes recounted towards the next choices in rounds 1 and 2. Shukla is defeated in round 3, with those votes recounted towards the next choices. Williams is similarly defeated in round 4.
| Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | Round 8 | Round 9 | |||||
| Rachel Ackoff | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | ||||
| Erica Stout | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | ||||
| Sasha Shahidi | 10.890 | +1.476 | 12.366 | -1.366 | 11.000 | 11.000 | 11.000 | ||
| Andrew Nazdin | 9.875 | +2.000 | 11.875 | 11.875 | -0.875 | 11.000 | 11.000 | ||
| Nora Sharp | 7.795 | +1.476 | 9.271 | +0.529 | 9.800 | +0.290 | 10.090 | +5.182 | 15.272 |
| Juan Martinez | 8.890 | +0.476 | 9.366 | +0.250 | 9.616 | +0.120 | 9.736 | +1.295 | 11.031 |
| Katherine McEachern | 8.857 | +0.476 | 9.333 | +0.331 | 9.665 | +0.221 | 9.886 | +0.312 | 10.198 |
| Bret O'Connor | 7.313 | 7.313 | +0.256 | 7.568 | +0.221 | 7.789 | -7.789 | 0.000 | |
| Nick Knobbe | 5.905 | -5.905 | 0.000 | ||||||
| Juliana Williams | 0.000 | ||||||||
| Arjun Shukla | |||||||||
| Nathan Wyeth* | |||||||||
| Continuing | 81.524 | 0.000 | 81.524 | 0.000 | 81.524 | -0.023 | 81.501 | -1.000 | 80.501 |
| Exhausted | 0.476 | 0.476 | 0.476 | +0.023 | 0.499 | +1.000 | 1.499 | ||
| Undervotes | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | 2.000 | ||||
| Total | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 | 0.000 | 84.000 |
Round 5-9 Notes: Knobbe is defeated in round 5. In round 6, Shahidi and Nazdin win election and those surplus votes transferred in rounds 6 and 7. O'Connor is defeated in round 8 and those votes transferred. In round 9, Sharp, Martinez, and McEachern are the only candidates remaining, so they win and round out the elected seven.
This chart shows how many voters had one of their top choices elected: how many had their first choice elected; how many had their second choice elected, but not their first; and so on.
| #1 choice elected | 81.7% | (67.0) | |
| #2 choice elected | 13.4% | (11.0) | |
| #3 choice elected | 3.7% | (3.0) | |
| #4 choice elected | 1.2% | (1.0) |
So 82.0% of the voters had their first choice elected, 95.0% one of their first two choices, and 99.0% one of their first three choices!
This chart shows how many choices voters ranked on their ballot. On the far left is the number ranking a single candidate. On the far right is the number ranking all candidates.
Average number of candidates ranked: 8.5
Median number of candidates ranked: 8