Background
In the Spring of 1993 the APA membership voted affirmatively in a referendum to amend By-Law #12 of the Association. The newly amended text of By-Law #12 reads as follows:
“The election of Officers, Financial Trustees, and members of the Board of Directors as well as such other Delegates, Representatives, and members of Committees as may be required elsewhere in these By-Laws or in other regulations shall be by mail ballot at the time and in the manner prescribed by the Board of Directors. The nominee who receives the majority of votes cast for an office shall be declared elected. In the event that the number of candidates for any office makes it possible that no candidate shall receive a majority, the balloting for that office is to be by the “alternative vote” system first described by Thomas Hare, The Machinery of Representation, 1859.”
Voting for an office at SCS is by preferential ballot whenever x number of seats are available and more than x + 1 candidates are offered. The positions eligible for preferential balloting in the 2022 election are: Board of Directors, Nominating Committee, Program Committee, Committee on Professional Ethics, and Goodwin Committee. In addition the three new designated director positions (graduate student director, contingent faculty director, and director with special responsibility for equity) will be elected via preferential balloting with three candidates running for one position in each race.
Since Thomas Hare first introduced the "alternative vote" system in 1859, also called preferential balloting or ranked choice voting, there have been many improvements and innovations in tabulation methods for ranked choice voting. The link below from fairvote.org describes in an accessible but detailed way how our voting contractor Vote-Now LLC will tabulate the ballots: