How should I interpret the "election data"?

Question

I just downloaded the election data following the link in the election page's bottom banner.

I got a file called spanish-stackexchange-com-2019-election-results.blt. Its contents are as follows:

0 2
0
"Spanish Language Stack Exchange Moderator Election 2019"

That's it.

What does each number mean?

Answer 1

Me bajé los resultados de la 2.ª eleccion de Stack Overflow en español. Allí hubo 9 candidatos para dos plazas y las primeras líneas son así:

9 2
1 0 0 1 0

Y termina con:

0
"Pikoh"
"Alfabravo"
"gbianchi"
"Paul Vargas"
"fredyfx"
"Raul Cacacho"
"Diego Avila"
"Mario Guiber"
"David Villegas"
"Stack Overflow en español Moderator Election 2019"

En nuestro caso el fichero contiene:

0 2
0
"Spanish Language Stack Exchange Moderator Election 2019"

Por lo que la cabecera 0 2, 9 2, o M Nen general, correspondería a "M presentados, N posiciones", donde los presentados serían los que concurren a la votación propiamente dicha. No tuvimos elección y el sistema marca 0, no sé por qué. Esto es independiente de que sea elección Pro Tem o no, pues la elección Pro Tem de Interpersonal Skills llegó a la fase de votos y también tiene M > 0.

Luego está el 0, que debe aparecer para determinar el final de la contabilidad de los votos, según el paper que describe el método de contabilización de votos: http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.NSF/Files/meekm/$file/meekm.pdf

The final zero ends the votes.

Y finalmente está la última línea, que corresponde al nombre de la elección.

---

From Google Code Archive - BLT File Format I see the mention:

Droop uses the blt file format, first described by Hill, Wichmann & Woodall in "Algorithm 123 - Single Transferable Vote by Meek's method"

In the linked paper we read:

3.1. The Data

The data file should be held on disc, or other device that allows quick ‘rewinding’, because it has to be read many times during program execution. Its form should be as follows:

4 2
-2
3 1 3 4 0
4 1 3 2 0
2 4 1 3 0
1 2 0
2 2 4 3 1 0
1 3 4 2 0
0
"Adam"
"Basil"
"Charlotte"
"Donald"
"Title"

The first line means that there are 4 candidates for 2 seats. The second line means that candidate number 2 withdrew before the count. As many candidates as nec- essary may be included in this line, each preceded by a minus sign. If no candidate withdrew, the line should be omitted entirely. The third line means that 3 voters put candidate 1 first, candidate 3 second, candidate 4 third, and no more. Each such list must end with a zero. The final zero ends the votes. The subsequent lines name the candidates, in the order of candidate numbers as used in the votes, and finally give a title for the election. If any of these names, or the title, is longer than 20 characters, only the first 20 will be used.

For elections on any substantial scale, further pro- grams are desirable to get the data into this required form. Machine-readable ballot papers would obviously be a great help if a suitable system can be devised.