Template talk:Election results

Elections under multiple non-transferable vote

So I tried this out at Template:1946 Philippine Senate election results (sorry guys I know you wanted that to be deleted LOL) and there seems to be something missing for this type of election:

1. It doesn't show you who won. Let's imagine the reader knows nothing about this election. Okay, I suppose the candidate at the top won, but if this was a single-winner election, how come there are so many votes, with more votes than the people who voted?
2. I suppose the percentages should be based on the turnout and not on the total votes, but I've seen similar elections use the total votes as the dividend.
3. For these types of elections, the top x candidates win, so having a "Rank" column is a good visual cue.

I know there's a two-seat variant of this template but it doesn't work for 3+ winners in an election. Howard the Duck (talk) 21:21, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

You can add background colours for rows – see e.g. 1990 Slovenian presidential election#Presidency, and you can manually add bolding to candidate and party names.

There may be a way to refactor percentages for candidate elections where people can vote for more than one, but what would the total figure for use of calculation be – would it be total votes cast for candidates or total number of voters casting valid votes (some voters may not use all their votes)? The total as it appears at the bottom would still be the total of votes cast for candidates, but I don't think this is an issue if you've got the valid votes line – there are many countries where the vote totals for parties are far larger than the electorate as voters have multiple votes (e.g. this or this). Not sure about adding a ranking column – potentially quite a bit of extra coding.

Ultimately it won't be possible or worth it to adjust the template for every possible layout – while going through different countries to convert to this template, I've formatted some using wikitables because only a tiny number of tables would look like that and it's not worth the extra coding. Cheers, Number 57 21:41, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Background colors: I know you guys are talking about changing up the party color templates, but that Slovenian example has the same exact similar color to Template:Nacionalista Party/meta/color (LOL), and I've been trying to change that but the last time I did that, someone reverted because "We're using it here everywhere".

Also, I tried these out, and it doesn't work unless you change |cand to |row, but that got rid of the party column. Howard the Duck (talk) 22:04, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

It depends per election authority. I checked out Manx elections, which used an identical format, and they divided by total number of votes cast (therefore the current setup should give out the same results). On Philippine elections interestingly, these are normally not presented with percentages. I suppose there can be a way to turn off this feature? Here at Wikipedia, Philippine Senate elections have always been presented with percentages, but are never presented that way elsewhere. I'm actually interested on how election authorities do this. Howard the Duck (talk) 21:55, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

The row background colour is your choice; it isn't hardcoded to be that shade of green, I've just input that because that's what was used on the previous wikitable version. But good point re it only working on rows – that can be fixed. The percentage column could be hidden; I'll have a look at how much code that would take if you want. Number 57 22:23, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, I was more gunning on a yellow color, as that what is being used. Just keep us updated once this is fixed up. Howard the Duck (talk) 22:32, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Related question: For "partyx", is it supposed to be the full name of the party, the short name, or wherever the article name is at (except for disambiguation). Howard the Duck (talk) 21:59, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

You can pipe in whatever name you like; the meta color is called using the link, so as long as that is correct, how you pipe it is irrelevant (Zimbabwe African National Union – Ndonga and ZANU–Ndonga both call the meta color). However, if you're not linking, then you need the full party name to get the meta color to work. Number 57 22:23, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Is there like a rule, or is it totally upon the discretion of anybody who's editing? If we're using US parties, is it recommended to be as "Democratic" or "Democratic Party" (or even "D")? Howard the Duck (talk) 22:32, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

There isn't a rule as far as I'm aware. There may be consensus for individual countries in their respective politics projects. Personally I would always go for the full name of the party unless it's significantly longer than the others and distorts the table. 'Democratic' is fine for an infobox summary, but I don't think is appropriate in a table.

Separately I've fixed the background colour for rows using 'cand1' etc. Will try and do the hiding percentages thing soon. Number 57 13:40, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

@Howard the Duck: The functionality to refactor percentages for elections where voters can cast multiple ballots has now been added. If you use the 'divisor' function, it will refactor the percentage column into a % of valid votes cast (rather than total votes cast for all candidates). See an example at 1866 Surinamese general election. Cheers, Number 57 21:50, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. Can we add an optional "#" leftmost column? In MNTV elections, the percentages or vote totals don't really matter, but on how you ranked in the tally. Howard the Duck (talk) 22:02, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

I'd suppose there can also be an option to remove percentage column entirely. Howard the Duck (talk) 23:15, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Just to clarify, would the rank column be before the party colour one like this? It somehow seems a bit disjointed. Also, given tables are already ranked in order of votes received, what would be the purpose of the rank column?

#	Candidate		Party	Votes	%
1		Bill Jones	Conservative Party	13,000	51.00
2		Eric Smith	Independent	12,000	49.00

Separately, removing the percentage column would potentially require quite a lot of code to be added to hide the columns in multiple parts of the table (as currently the % column automatically appears if the votes column is used). However, you can effectively do the same thing already by hacking the template slightly, as below. Number 57 16:26, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, I thought about the color column and the rank column and yes, it does look disjointed. However, I'd be ok with this if only we'd only show the rank column on multiple winner elections like MNTV and SNTV. I've peeked at WP:FLs, and the colour column, if there's a rank column, is quite far away from it; one colors the "#" column with the party color, but I won't recommend this. One more way is to put the color and the party columns together, but I've seen several election results tables that indeed show the color as the leftmost column (then again, those are single-winner elections), so people may be used to it, and expect it to be within that area of the results table.

Re: The purpose -- for MNTV and SNTV, the winners are for the top X positions; the rank column allows the reader to visually know who among the top X are; in jurisdictions where this type of election is being used, the specific value of X has become somewhat drilled into brains of voters, like "I need X names for this position".

One another way is boldfacing entire rows in results tables, like the old election tables, but it doesn't give you at first glance how many seats are contested in this "district". In cases such as 2023 Amber Valley Borough Council election, this is rather easy, as the winners are the top 2-3. In cases such as 2022 Calamba City Council elections, it's not readily apparent (I think it's 12, and I wasted 10 seconds of life counting it). Howard the Duck (talk) 22:12, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Re hack: This hack removes the party column, which is pretty essential. If hiding the % is too hard to do, I'd be ok with keeping it. Howard the Duck (talk) 22:12, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

The hack doesn't get rid of the party column – I just didn't include it in the example – now added in to demonstrate it works.

It is also possible to add background colour to rows (like in 2004 Norfolk Island legislative election) to demonstrate who was elected (which I think is much clearer way of demonstrating who was successful than bolding). But I will have a go at adding a # column in the near future. Cheers, Number 57 22:20, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

i'd prefer bolding or even a checkmark than coloring an entire row (considering I've done that before lol) as we already color a cell for the party. This isn't like sports tables where we don't color an entire column.

I like how the hack looks like now tho. Let me know how you want this done (by numbers, bolding or coloring then let's see how it works in actual usage. Howard the Duck (talk) 00:13, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

It's in the code below. I used the seats function for the votes (and changed the title of the column using the |seatstitle parameter). Cheers, Number 57 23:00, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Is there a way to have the winners be made to stand out other than manually boldfacing every entry? Howard the Duck (talk) 22:52, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Candidate		Party	Votes
	Candidate A	Party A	34,390
	Candidate B	Party B	25,440
	Candidate C	Party C	10,101
Total			69,931

Adding # (ranks)

This would be hanby for multiple winner elections. I just dunno how it should be done as the color column is at the leftmost corner. Just make it optional, as the default should be the unnumbered version. Howard the Duck (talk) 13:19, 6 January 2024 (UTC)

Alliance

Hello, I was wondering if some change could be done to make the table less bulky when there's alliance. Currently, the tables look like this :

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
	Union for the Homeland		Union for the Homeland	8,252,357	36.59	48
			Civic Front for Santiago	378,246	1.68	4
			Más para Entre Ríos	293,605	1.30	2
			Front for the Renewal of Concord	252,335	1.12	3
			Unión por San Luis	83,178	0.37	1
			Renewal Front	38,770	0.17	0
		Total		9,298,491	41.23	58
	La Libertad Avanza		La Libertad Avanza	5,804,502	25.74	28
			Ahora Patria	305,397	1.35	2
			Republican Force	286,594	1.27	1
			Federal Renewal Party	152,853	0.68	1
			Arriba Neuquén	136,290	0.60	1
			Faith Party	126,879	0.56	1
			Republicanos Unidos	30,534	0.14	1
		Total		6,843,049	30.34	35
	Juntos por el Cambio		Juntos por el Cambio	5,519,165	24.47	27
			Cambia Mendoza	287,020	1.27	1
			Juntos por Entre Ríos	269,189	1.19	1
			ECO–Vamos Corrientes	222,006	0.98	1
			Cambia Jujuy	96,158	0.43	1
			Cambia Santa Cruz	18,595	0.08	0
		Total		6,412,133	28.43	31
Total				22,553,673	100.00	124

Don't you think the tables would look better like this ?

Party or alliance			Votes	%	Seats
		Union for the Homeland	8,252,357	33.62	48
		Civic Front for Santiago	378,246	1.54	4
		Más para Entre Ríos	293,605	1.20	2
		Front for the Renewal of Concord	252,335	1.03	3
		Unión por San Luis	83,178	0.34	1
		Renewal Front	38,770	0.16	0
	Total Union for the Homeland		9,298,491	37.88	58
		La Libertad Avanza	5,804,502	23.65	28
		Ahora Patria	305,397	1.24	2
		Republican Force	286,594	1.17	1
		Federal Renewal Party	152,853	0.62	1
		Arriba Neuquén	136,290	0.56	1
		Faith Party	126,879	0.52	1
		Republicanos Unidos	30,534	0.12	1
	Total La Libertad Avanza		6,843,049	27.88	35
		Juntos por el Cambio	5,519,165	22.48	27
		Cambia Mendoza	287,020	1.17	1
		Juntos por Entre Ríos	269,189	1.10	1
		ECO–Vamos Corrientes	222,006	0.90	1
		Cambia Jujuy	96,158	0.39	1
		Cambia Santa Cruz	18,595	0.08	0
	Total Juntos por el Cambio		6,412,133	26.12	31
Total'			22,553,673	100.00	124

I feel like this would be even more needed when in many countries, alliances often have quite long names, like the french New Ecological and Social People's Union. But I aknowledge that I wouldn't know how to implement this change even if it get approved here. Cordially. Aréat (talk) 01:50, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

These tables aren't that wide, so I don't really see the need to remove an entire column. It's also somewhat confusing with the two bars of colour, especially if you're not reading a "here's what I changed" description right before. Also slightly concerned about how clear this is for screen readers.

On the other hand, backend code wouldn't be too difficult to rearrange. Primefac (talk) 15:51, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

In the second version, I don't think the arrangement of alliances is clear enough. The double column of colours is quite confusing, and only at the bottom do you find out that there is a total (and it's still not clear there that this is an alliance). Number 57 15:57, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

STV elections example

Hi, I'm happy to help with the coding (I know Julia, which is pretty similar to Lua), but I'm not familiar with this template or how it works.

Could the template be modified to handle STV elections? I think Template:STV Election box begin &co were used for this a few times, but they're a mess (everything strewn around 4 or 5 different templates and with none of the features of the election box template).

An STV template would need to:

1. Allow for >2 rounds,
2. Keep the total number of votes fixed across rounds (because the total number of ballots doesn't change),
3. Indicate eliminations (e.g. with a red X mark),
4. Indicate transfers (i.e. the change in each candidate's vote total from round-to-round).

Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 20:29, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

I don't think so as adding additional rounds requires a large amount of additional code and STV elections can go on for well over ten rounds. It would likely be easier to create a separate module that mirrors the style of this one, but only has the code for multiple vote rounds and doesn't have to factor in multiple combinations of seats/alliances/DSV etc. Number 57 20:53, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Makes sense, thanks! Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 00:39, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Oh, hmm, wait; it looks like it can already handle 3 rounds, so isn't it possible to just extend whatever loop generates the second/3rd/etc. rounds?

I'm interested in smaller elections (>10 round elections shouldn't really be displayed in a table like this, which will just get cluttered or confusing). I'm really just looking for something that can handle maybe 5 or 6 rounds. Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 15:48, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

It doesn't work on a loop basis. Every round has to have its own coding, and it's not just for the candidate rows, but also the headings, total votes, invalid votes, blank votes, electorate etc. Also, what you're proposing would require the existing round rows to be modified, which would add even more code.

If you're going to have a results template that works for STV, it should be done properly and be able to cover all sizes of STV elections, not just ones that one particular editor is interested in. Number 57 18:06, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

I also think a separate template would be better. I don't know how to do the template code, but I did some manual code tables for such election on the french speaking wiki, for example here and here, if it may help. One particularity that shouldn't be forgotten is the existence of the cumulative exhausted votes, starting with the second "round". Cordially. --Aréat (talk) 09:48, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

I've started developing {{Election results-STV}}. See how it works here - there are options to include or exclude percentages. There is one last thing I need to fix (the 'Total' row not appearing properly on the version without party names), otherwise I think it is nearly ready to go (the other thing I have not decided on is whether to include gridlines on exhausted rows. Comments welcome of course! Number 57 13:44, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

Oh, that's awesome, I didn't knew a template was already done this far. Well done!
If you wan't feedback, I find it clearer to understand the results when the rows of eliminated candidates just end and then are empty on their right side while the rows of the candidates still "in" continue to be filled. But that's just my two cents.
More importantly, from your example, it seem to me the fist count column should have the exchausted row filled with a "–" on both Votes and % subcolumns, not just %, so that it doesn't feel like the data is missing (by definition there can't be exhausted ballots in the first count).
And I'm a bit wary of your decision to show percentages with the exhausted. It really should have a "–" as well. As far as I know, exhausted votes are never part of the percentage calculation for the remaining candidates. They're out of the count. That's why on my manual tables I even placed them under the total of remaining votes. (They're still included in the total of valid votes anyways).
Finally, if you keep it above, I believe you will have to make the exhausted votes row be cumulative and indicate it as such, otherwise the total won't hold. Cordially.--Aréat (talk) 23:30, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

I hadn't done any special code for the exhausted row as I am not sure how it is normally shown. In the testcase I just created a normal row with the name 'Exhausted'. I'm open to ideas about how it could work, or whether it's even needed. Number 57 01:12, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Wow, that looks amazing @Number 57! Thank you so much for all your hard work on this :)

From what I can tell, exhausted ballots are typically included in English Wikipedia infoboxes and IRV election results. Examples include 2009 Burlington mayoral election (disclosure: I made this one) along with 2018 Irish presidential election (I didn't make that one, and the rule is applied consistently across Irish elections).

Exhausted ballots are typically "out of the count" in that they can't affect the results anymore, but still meaningful in that they usually indicate "dissatisfied voters" (ones who are unhappy with all remaining candidates).–Maximum Limelihood Estimator 02:44, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused about what you say, as there were no exhausted ballots in the 2018 Irish presidential election as Higgins won on the first count, while for 2011 Irish presidential election (in which there were), they are not listed. From the STV election articles I've seen, exhausted ballots are not generally included. Number 57 02:55, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

I don't doubt many STV pages don't have exhausted votes, the same way many STV pages don't even have the different counts, only the first and last ones. Compare the table in the Huon consistency on the 2022 Tasmanian Legislative Council periodic election and its page on the french wiki. That's why a proper table is needed, to make it easy to actually add all the right info. Another example showing exhausted row done right, in my opinion, would be 2018 Guernsey electoral system referendum. The amount of such votes show why the percentage isn't included toward the percentages of the actual options. Cordially. --Aréat (talk) 11:00, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

In the context of Australian elections, ballots can't become exhausted during the count, because Australia requires full rankings (so the number of exhausted ballots is 0).

The main issue with excluding exhausted ballots from the percentages is that, depending on context and rules for counting, exhausted ballots can affect the results. This is especially true in STV elections (where they can affect the quota), and is also true of voting systems other than IRV. –Maximum Limelihood Estimator 16:12, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant the 2011 one!

WRT the 2011 election, I was referring to the infobox. –Maximum Limelihood Estimator 14:38, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Exhausted votes definitely exist in Australia. In the example used above, Tasmania, many elections have exhausted votes, for example here in 2018. Not all states require full ranking. New South Wales, for example, doesn't require it for its legislative council. The election of 21 of its members only require voters to mark up to 15 candidates [1], [2]. Anyways, it's important to have a row. I go back on my previous statement, though, as there do seem to be some place like Ireland where indeed they're included in the count. In 2011, a candidate had to gain half of 1,771,762 valid votes, so 885,882. A candidate could thus have 50 % of the remaining non exhausted votes and not be elected until getting that number in a further round. So, the template should simply allow for exhausted votes to be included in the percentages, or not be included. It all depend on the voting system, which varies. Cordially.--Aréat (talk) 19:18, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Manually, the table for the irish 2011 election look like this, for example.--Aréat (talk) 19:40, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Ooh, I really like this. Thanks! :) –Maximum Limelihood Estimator 19:55, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Do you happen to have time to test Number57 template above on the irish election results to see how it compare? :] --Aréat (talk) 14:41, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

Apologies, I will try and sort it this weekend. Just moved house and well behind on my watchlist! Number 57 22:59, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

I was asking Maximum! Since he seemed very enthusiasmed by it. You already did a great job as far as I can see. No problem, take your time. --Aréat (talk) 12:14, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

Inaccessible text in new night (dark) theme

If you visit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_South_Korean_legislative_election?minervanightmode=1 you'll see Registered voters/turnout and Total votes display as gray text on a black background.

Could the following diff please be applied to fix this ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AComparePages&page1=Module%3AElection+results&page2=Module%3AElection+results%2Fsandbox

Thanks in advance! 🐸 Jdlrobson (talk) 06:17, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Module:Election results is fully protected. I've updated the request template from {{TPER}}.

I've tested {{Election results/sandbox}} in a preview in Minerva night mode and it seems to work for me. Plus the proposed change makes sense with regard to the neighboring code :css('background', 'inherit') and the page mw:Help:Lint errors/night-mode-unaware-background-color. —⁠andrybak (talk) 15:27, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done For what it's worth I am not convinced this page really needs to be full protected. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 15:35, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

With <9k transclusions, I generally agree. Primefac (talk) 14:53, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

I've seen template-confirmed editors mess up other widely-used templates because they don't properly check the outcomes of their changes (it's amazing how many people don't check their changes in the sandbox) – for example, someone made a mess of {{Infobox election}} around a month ago. Due to the relatively high complexity of this module, a large number of testcases need to be checked when changes are made to make sure they don't inadvertently affect certain types of tables. With all this in mind, I would prefer this to remain fully-protected to make sure there is less chance of a big cock-up being made. Number 57 15:17, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Hrm... that's a reasonable argument. Primefac (talk) 15:19, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Showing alliance on constituency elections

in some countries, the larger alliance is as important as the original party. One example is Malaysia, the Nordic countries, India and the Philippines. Would it be possible to add a separate column for alliance? I hacked this by using parenthesis, such as "Nationalist People's Coalition (UniTeam Alliance)" in Template:2022 Philippine Senate election results. Ideally a possible "Alliance" column is beside the "Party" column, either before or after. Howard the Duck (talk) 13:19, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

You can already do this – see below. Cheers, Number 57 00:10, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Would it be possible, if alliances are used, to default to the party if left blank? Howard the Duck (talk) 17:41, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

Yes, if you use the alliance field but not party (you can put either a party or an alliance in the alliance field), it will appear as the second table below. Number 57 20:18, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

Great. This should work and would align this with the actual per party results table. Howard the Duck (talk) 05:03, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

Candidate		Alliance and party			Votes	%
	Robin Padilla	UniTeam Alliance		PDP–Laban	26,612,434	52.31
	Loren Legarda	MP3 Alliance		Nationalist People's Coalition	24,264,969	47.69
Total					50,877,403	100.00

Candidate		Alliance and/or party			Votes	%
	Robin Padilla	UniTeam Alliance		PDP–Laban	26,612,434	52.31
	Loren Legarda	Nationalist People's Coalition			24,264,969	47.69
Total					50,877,403	100.00

Add notes in the "votes" column

I am currently editing the 1989 Polish parliamentary election article, and the results table has three different columns - one for the constituency seats reserved for independent candidates (which included Solidarity's candidates, since it had no direct nomination rights), one for the constituency seats reserved for PZPR and its satellite parties, and one for the national list (which was reserved entirely for the PZPR bloc). I would like to add a "did not contest" note in italics where the votes column would otherwise go, but the template replaces every text string with 0. Is there a way to add those notes? Glide08 (talk) 22:47, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

I'm editing the same article. In the end we want to make it look something like this:

Alliance		Party		Constituency (contested)			Constituency (reserved)			National list			Totals
				Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth
			Polish United Workers' Party	Did not contest			22,734,348	59.26	156	132,845,385	47.19	17	173
			United People's Party				8,865,102	23.11	67	74,921,230	26.62	9	76
			Democratic Party				3,961,124	10.32	24	24,814,903	8.82	3	27
			PAX Association				1,216,681	3.17	7	24,269,761	8.62	3	10
			Christian-Social Union				907,901	2.37	6	16,601,896	5.90	2	8
			Polish Catholic-Social Association				681,199	1.78	4	8,029,911	2.85	1	5
			Independents	6,591,014	28.71	0	Did not contest						0
	Solidarity Citizens' Committee		Independents	16,369,237	71.29	161							161
Total				22,960,251	100.00	161	38,366,355	100.00	264	281,483,086	100.00	35	460
Total voters				17,053,171	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				27,362,313	62.32

ImperatorPublius (talk) 23:16, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Possible bug when votes against are unknown

In the 1986 Czechoslovak parliamentary election article, the table seems to add an extra column when the number of votes against, using the row2 and votes2 fields, is unknown. --Minoa (talk) 19:50, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Sorted. Cheers, Number 57 20:52, 19 May 2024 (UTC)