Calculation of the final scores of the Citizens' Budget
After the closing event, we'll count all the votes to decide which projects will proceed to implementation. We consider both online votes (submitted via the website of Thuis in Maastricht) and in-person votes (cast during the closing event). This page explains how we calculate the final scores for the projects.
3 steps
The final score per project is calculated in 3 steps.
- We determine for each project:
- what percentage of all online votes it has received
- what percentage of all in-person votes it has received.
- We adjust the scores: the score for online votes counts for 40% and the score for in-person votes counts for 60%. This process is called "weighting". In-person votes are given more weight because we value in-person engagement.
- We combine the 2 weighted scores to calculate the final score. This ensures a fair result where in-person votes have a greater impact.
Example calculation
Let's use 2 example projects to illustrate.
- Project A receives 1,000 online votes and 800 in-person votes, totalling 1,800 votes.
- Project B receives 4,000 online votes and 200 in-person votes, totalling 4,200 votes.
| Online votes | In-person votes | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project A | 1,000 | 800 | 1,800 |
| Project B | 4,000 | 200 | 4,200 |
| Total (all projects) | 5,000 | 1,000 | 6,000 |
Project B currently has significantly more votes than Project A overall. However, the final scores have not yet been calculated. In this process, in-person votes are weighted more heavily than online ones. The step-by-step calculation is outlined below.
- We calculate the percentage of all in-person and online votes each project has received.
- Project A has received 20% of all online votes (1,000 / 5,000 x 100 = 20%) and 80% of all in-person votes (800 / 1,000 x 100 = 80%).
- Project B has received 80% of all online votes (4,000 / 5,000 x 100 = 80%) and 20% of all in-person votes (200 / 1,000 x 100 = 20%).
- The online vote score accounts for 40%, and the in-person vote score accounts for 60% of the total. This results in the following weighted scores.
- Project A gets 8 points for online votes (40% of 20, or 0.4 x 20 = 8) and 48 points for in-person votes (60% of 80, or 0.6 x 80 = 48).
- Project B gets 32 points for online votes (40% of 80, or 0.4 x 80 = 32) and 12 points for in-person votes (60% of 20, or 0.6 x 20 = 12).
- The 2 weighted scores are combined for each project.
- Project A gets a final score of 56 (48 + 8 = 56).
- Project B gets a final score of 44 (12 + 32 = 44).
In this example, Project A wins as it has the higher final score.
Learn more
If you have any further questions about the calculation method, feel free to contact Team Burgerbegroting.