The d'Hondt system: How the Scottish Parliament voting system works
We take a look at how MSPs are elected to Holyrood.
The Scottish Parliament election uses what is known as the d’Hont system to tally up the votes and decide who is chosen to be an MSP.
It is a more proportional system than the first-past-the-post system used for general elections to the UK Parliament - but how exactly does it all work?
At the polling station
Voters will be handed two separate ballot papers when they arrive at their polling station. One will be to elect a constituency MSP, and the other will be to elect a regional MSP.
For the constituency vote, one MSP will be elected to represent a small area, for example Edinburgh Central. For the regional vote, several MSPs will be elected to represent a wider region, for example Edinburgh and Lothians East.
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On both papers, voters will be asked to put a cross next to the candidate or the party they want to vote for.
On the constituency vote, voters will be asked to vote for an individual candidate, whereas they will be asked to vote for a party on the regional ballot.
How are constituency votes calculated?
This is relatively easy to understand as it uses the first-past-the-post system, similar to what is used in general elections to elect MPs to the UK Parliament.
Whichever candidate wins the most votes is declared the winner, even if it is only by one vote.
All the constituency seats will be announced first as we need to know the final total of constituency MSPs before calculating who wins the regional seats.
How are regional votes calculated?
Once all the constituency MSPs are elected, the regional list votes are counted up. The total is then divided by the number of seats a party has already won in that region plus one.
For example, if a party has already won five constituency seats in a certain region, their total will be divided by six.
This vote is then done in rounds - for example, if a party wins no constituency seat and then wins the first regional seat up for grabs, then their vote is divided by two when it comes to selecting the second regional seat.
This is done until all the seats available in that region are allocated.
Who decides who gets the seats?
This is where voters do not get so much of a say. When electing a regional MSP, they are voting for a party rather than for an individual.
Parties will rank their list candidates - if there are eight candidates standing in a region, then they will rank them from one to eight.
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If that party then wins four seats in that region, then whoever they have ranked first, second, third and fourth will take up those seats.
It means that if one of these MSPs steps down during their term in office, a by-election will not be held. Voters have not voted for an individual, they have voted for a party. In this case, if a party has four MSPs in one region and one steps down mid-term, whoever was ranked fifth in the election will then take up the seat.
This is not the same for constituency MSPs, where voters have voted for an individual - if they step down before the next election then a by-election would be held.
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