Five things to know about how the Conservatives will choose a new leader

OTTAWA — Conservative party members have begun voting to select their new leader, with mail-in ballots now returning to a depot in Toronto ahead of the official vote count on May 27.

Here are five things to know about the process.

1) There are 14 names on the ballot — including Kevin O’Leary, as he dropped out too late to be taken off. The party doesn’t expect many members to still vote for him, but if they do, those votes will still be counted.

2) Voting is underway. Members must mail their ballots by May 26, or they can vote in person on May 27 either at the convention location or one of the polling stations being set up nationwide. Beginning May 15, the party will begin opening the mail ballots they’ve received to verify voters also submitted the required copy of their identification and a signed declaration form. But the actual votes won’t be counted until May 27.

3) There are 259,010 party members eligible to vote. While it’s one vote per member, the winner isn’t chosen based on those totals. Instead, each of the 338 federal ridings is allocated 100 points. How many points each candidate gets is determined by what percentage of the vote they get in a given riding. To win, a candidate will need 16,901 points.

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4) It’s a ranked ballot. Party members can choose up to 10 people they’d like to see as leader, ranking them from first to last. But even if they only choose one, that ballot will still be counted. The votes are counted electronically.

5) Second choices matter. Ranked ballots are counted in rounds. If, in the first round, no candidate gets a majority, the person with the lowest number of points is dropped from the ballot. Those who voted for that person will have their ballots counted again, with their second choice now being counted. The process continues until a winner is selected. The party expects to announce the winners of each round of balloting, until the overall winner is selected.

The Canadian Press