Residual vote is a measure of the number of ballots cast for an office for which no preference for a candidate is counted. A residual vote may occur for one of two general reasons: the choice may be blank (an undervote), or the voter may have chosen more than one candidate in a race that allows only one vote to be cast (an overvote).
The term residual vote first appeared in academic writing in 2001, coined by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, as a measure of voting system performance.[1]
The number of residual votes in an election is calculated by subtracting voter turnout in an election from the number of votes counted for candidates in a particular race.
Residual vote is sometimes confused with a related measure, voter roll-off. Roll-off is calculated by subtracting the number of votes cast for a "down-ballot" office, such as mayor, from the number of votes cast for a "top-of-the-ballot" office, such as president. Roll-off is a practical substitute for residual votes when the election jurisdiction does not report turnout.
References
- ^ Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, Residual Votes Attributable to Technology: An Assessment of the Reliability of Existing Voting Equipment, version 2, 3 Mar. 2001, http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~voting/CalTech_MIT_Report_Version2.pdf
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