Editing Droop quota (section)

=== Original Droop quota ===
Modern variants of STV use [[Counting single transferable votes#Surplus vote transfers|fractional transfers]] of ballots to eliminate uncertainty. However, some older implementations of STV with [[Counting single transferable votes#Hare STV the whole-vote method|whole vote reassignment]] cannot handle fractional quotas, and so instead will either [[Ceiling function|round up]], or add one and truncate:<ref name="droop-1881" />

<math>\left\lceil \frac{\text{total votes}}{k+1} \right\rceil \approx \left\lfloor \frac{\text{total votes}}{k+1} + 1 \right\rfloor </math>

This variant of the quota is generally not recommended in the context of modern elections that allow for fractional votes, where it can cause problems in small elections ([[#Common errors|see below]]).<ref name="mw-2007" /><ref name="newland-1980">{{Cite journal |last=Newland |first=Robert A. |date=June 1980 |title=Droop quota and D'Hondt rule |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00344898008459290 |journal=Representation |language=en |volume=20 |issue=80 |pages=21–22 |doi=10.1080/00344898008459290 |issn=0034-4893|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, it is the most commonly-used definition in legislative codes worldwide.{{cn|date=January 2025}}