Perform your own RCV tally: downloading the software NOTE: We revised the software on November 8 to include codes for overvotes and undervotes to facilitate the analysis of voting patterns. If you downloaded the software before Nov 8, we encourage you to use the updated version, which includes new input files and the program sfcnvrt.exe dated 11/8/4 at 9:18 am. Installing the software and performing RCV tallies
Some details and hints Before starting the process, your directory should contain:
Once you successfully run sfcnvrt from DOS, your directory will contain 7 .blt files, and when you successfully run CPLite from Windows, the following files will be in the same directory:
Both sfcnvrt.exe and CPLite.exe are DOS-based programs, so they may have trouble with long directory (folder) names. That's why it's a good idea to store all these files in a simple directory on the c: drive. In particular, use a valid 8 character file names for the folder, such as c:\rcv. The codes for undervotes, overvotes and specific candidate names are hardwired into sfcnvrt.exe, so don't expect to use the same program in future elections (but we'll surely be able to provide more flexible software next time). There are two input files for CPLite.exe. The first is a .in file, such as supe1.in. This file lists the candidate names and candidate codes. It also includes a statement that says, ".INCLUDE DIST01.BLT." The .blt file contains the actual rankings. Once CPLite reads in dist01.in, it knows to read the data in dist01.blt. Once it finishes reading both files, which goes very quickly, it is ready to perform the RCV tally and generate the election results, which are stored in the files, election.out and tabrpt.out. Remember that this free version CPLite is for evaluation purposes, and that if you ever want to use this software to tally the results of your own election, you should buy the software ($45). You can read more about the software on Voting Solution's website. When official data is released, numerous experts, such as Professor Rich DeLeon and David Binder of Binder and Associates, will analyze the results and announcing their finds, so if you have any trouble, check our homepage or do a web search for other people who are posting independent tally results. |