Optimus Template

Question: I put the following data into your simulated STV software:
Party1:  All candidates got 40% of the votes
Party2:  All candidates got 40% of the votes
Party3:  All candidates got 20% of the votes

The result is that P1 got 3 MLAs, P2 got 2 MLAs, and P3 got 1 MLA. Is this an error in the software or the system?

Answer: This should clearly result in a tie.  If by this you mean that in Step 1 you chose 6 MLAs, 3 parties, and 6 candidates in each party, and then in Step 2 assigned preferences 1,2,3,4,5,6 to C1,C2,C3,C4,C5,C6 for, say, 4000 ballots, and then assigned preferences 1,2,3,4,5,6 to C7,C8,C9,C10,C11,C12 for 4000 ballots, and then assigned preferences 1,2,3,4,5,6 to C13,C14,C15,C16,C17,C18 for 2000 ballots, then you would indeed obtain the result that you quoted.  And this would be the correct result for the BC-STV system, because we're using its rules for resolving ties.