Electoral counts in parliamentary elections
The electoral count tells us which parties have won seats in the Storting, how many seats they have won, and which candidates have been elected.
Once the count has been completed, the county electoral committees distribute the 150 constituency seats. The seats at large are distributed by the national electoral committee after all of the county electoral committees have completed their electoral count.
Constituency seats are distributed based on the modified Sainte-Laguë method. This means that the county electoral committee must add up how many votes each party or list has received in all of the municipalities in the county in a verification count. This involves each list's total vote polled being divided by 1.4, 3, 5, 7 and so on. The total vote polled must be divided as many times as necessary to find the number of seats the list will have. After this, each party or list is left with a number of quotients. The first seat goes to the party or list with the highest quotient. The second seat goes to the party or list with the second highest quotient. This continues until the county has distributed all of its constituency seats. If two or more parties or lists have the same quotient, the seat goes to the one that polled the highest number of votes. If they have also polled the same number of votes, lots will be drawn to see who gets the seat.
Once the county electoral committee has distributed the constituency seats, they must be distributed to the candidates on the lists. This is done by first counting the names listed as number 1 on the ballot papers. In parliamentary elections, voters have the option of renumbering the order of candidates on the ballot papers. The candidate who has been listed number 1 the highest number of times is elected. If two or more candidates achieve the same result, the original order on the list will apply. If this party or list has won multiple seats, the names listed as number 2 on the ballot papers must be counted in the same way. This process continues until all of the seats won by the party or list have been distributed. The same process is then carried out for the other parties and lists that have won one or more constituency seats.
Once the county electoral committees have completed this work, they have completed their electoral count.