COUNTIFS Same array criteria PLEASE HELP

[Bluestripe44]

Hi there, I'm having trouble with a COUNTIFS function I'm trying to write. I'm checking the same criteria (an array) against multiple different ranges - is this possible? I can't figure out why else the function might not be working.

The file attached is a snippet of a much longer file. I'm trying to use functions to calculate the results of a single transferrable vote election. My problem is that the functioning doesn't seem to be counting beyond the second rank. So

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counts votes which selected the current candidate as their first choice. That works.

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counts votes whose first choice has been eliminated and whose second choice is the current candidate. But the remainder - like

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which should count votes whose first and second choices have been eliminated but whose third choice was the current candidate - are not counting.

[FDibbins]

Maybe you are overthinking this?

I used =COUNTIF(B2:F12,K4)
and it returned 5

[davsth]

I think you are right Ford, but if you are halfway through the process and there is more than 1 "valid value" a more complex formula is needed. However I feel the sample file doesn't contain enough information

If each column is a round of voting, we would need to know who is excluded at each stage and ideally why. Presumably you are keeping going until you have a winner.