Proportional Representation: Voting Methods

First Past The Post voting, currently used to elect members of the House of Commons in the UK, takes place in single-member constituencies. The voter simply puts a cross in a box next to one candidate. The candidate with the most votes in the constituency wins. All other votes count for nothing. In some places, such as a number of English and Welsh local elections, FPTP is used to elect several representatives at one time. This system is known as the Multiple Non-Transferable Vote (MNTV). FPTP is also known as simple majority voting or plurality voting, and is the second most widely used voting system in the world, after party lists. Countries which use this system include the UK, the US, Canada and India.

Are you For or Against "First Past The Post" Voting?

For

Against

hollandnumerics says:

FPTP works in favour of parties where their voters are concentrated in more than half of the constituencies and larger absent from the rest. A party with greater national votes, but more even national spread, could receive fewer seats as a result.

 

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The Alternative Vote (AV) is very much like First Past The Post. It is used to elect representatives for single-member constituencies, but rather than simply marking a solitary 'X' on the ballot paper, the voter has the chance to rank the candidates on offer by putting a '1' by their first preference, a '2' by their second preference and so on. If a candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes (more people put them as number one than all the rest combined), then they are elected. If no candidate gains a majority on first preferences, then the second-preference votes of the candidate who finished last on the first count are redistributed. This process is repeated until someone gets over 50 per cent. AV is also known as Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and Preferential Voting, and is used in Australian House of Representatives; Australian Legislative Assemblies ("lower houses") of all states and territories (bar Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, which both use STV); Australian Legislative Council in Tasmania; Irish Presidential election; By-elections to the Dail (the lower house of the Irish Parliament); By-elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly; Papua New Guinea National Parliament; Fijian House of Representatives; numerous American Mayoral and district elections; Student Union elections.

Are you For or Against "Alternative Vote" Voting?

For

hollandnumerics says:

It is not true that voters get more than one vote, as, in the 2nd and subsequent voting rounds, their single votes are transferred from their current choice to their next choice if their current choice is eliminated.

hollandnumerics says:

Removes the need for "tactical voting" (voting for a 2nd choice party to prevent a 3rd choice party from winning a seat) by incorporating this into the voting method.

Against

hollandnumerics says:

Is no more proportional than FPTP.

 

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The Limited Vote is used in multi-member constituencies. It allows each elector more than one vote, but fewer votes than there are candidates to choose from. The candidates with the most votes get elected. It is used in The Spanish Senate; Gibraltar's House of Assembly, where electors have eight votes for the 15 seats; various local-level elections, such as those for municipal offices in some US States.

Are you For or Against "Limited Vote" Voting?

For

Against

 

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The SV system is similar to the Alternative Vote system, but under SV voters are limited to a first and second preference only. All first choice votes are tallied and if the candidate has a majority they are elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two candidates are retained, and the rest eliminated. The second-preference votes of the eliminated candidates are then counted, and any for either of the top two candidates are added to their first-round totals. Whichever candidate has the most votes after these second-preferences have been allocated is declared the winner. It is used in Directly elected English mayors, most notably the Mayor of London.

Are you For or Against "Supplementary Vote" Voting?

For

Against

 

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STV uses preferential voting in multi-member constituencies. Each voter has one vote. This vote can transfer from the voter's first preference, to second preference and so on if the voter's preferred candidate has no chance of being elected or has enough votes already. Candidates do not need a majority of votes to be elected, just a known 'quota' or share of the votes determined by the size of the electorate and the number of positions to be filled. STV is used in Republic of Ireland - all elections except for the presidency and by-elections when Alternative Vote is used; Northern Ireland - Assembly, European and local government elections; Scotland - local elections from 2007; Malta - all elections; Australian Senate; Tasmanian House of Assembly; New Zealand - various local authorities; India - the indirect elections to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's federal Parliament.

Are you For or Against "Single Transferable Vote" Voting?

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Against

 

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The Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) was invented by the 1998 Independent Commission on the Voting System, commonly known as the Jenkins Commission. The Commission described the system as a "limited" form of AMS aimed at achieving a balance between the requirements of "broad proportionality" and "stable government". Voters would have a 2nd vote with which to choose from lists of candidates posted by parties and covering a larger area, such as a county. The voter then chooses their favourite party or a preferred candidate on that party's list. Each party's share of the 2nd vote is counted. Parties under-represented in seats as a result of the first vote would be allocated "county" MPs to correct the imbalance. This would create, say, an extra 100 MPs.

AV+ was created with the intention of being the alternative to First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) in Labour's promised referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. The referendum never came and AV+ has, for now, been confined to the parliamentary archives.

Are you For or Against "Alternative Vote Plus" Voting?

For

Against

 

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AMS is a hybrid voting system, part First Past The Post and part closed party list, the party list element added on to make the result more proportional. Outside the UK it is more commonly referred to as Mixed Member Proportional (MMP).The exact proportion of constituency representatives and list representatives varies from country to country; the constituency element usually makes up between 50 and 80 per cent. Voters typically have two votes - one for a candidate and one for a party. When all the votes are in, each constituency returns a winner, in the traditional FPTP style. If a candidate was standing in a constituency as well as on a party list, their name is taken off the list, with everyone below them moving up a place. The additional members are then allocated with the aim of tallying the number of seats won by each party to their share of the vote. Some systems do this solely on the basis of the party vote, others include the constituency vote too. AMS is used in Scottish Parliament; Welsh Assembly; Greater London Assembly; Italy - Senate and Chamber of Deputies; Germany - Bundestag; New Zealand - House of Representatives; Mexico - Camara de Diputados (lower house); Bolivia - Camara de Diputados (lower house); Lesotho - National Assembly (lower house).

Are you For or Against "Additional Member System" Voting?

For

Against

 

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Party list systems have two main forms - open and closed. Each party provides a list of candidates. With the open system, voters put a cross by the name of a candidate; with the closed system they put a cross by the name of a party. Voters have only one vote and seats are allocated in proportion to the number of votes received. List PR is used to elect candidates in multi-member districts, or sometimes in an entire country. Party list systems vary considerably across the globe, determined chiefly by the size of districts, thresholds for securing seats and the manner in which the seats are allocated. There are a number of methods used to translate votes into seat allocation. The most common are the d'Hondt method, the Sainte-Lague method, the Huntington-Hill method and the largest remainder (LR) method. Party lists are the most common method of election in the world. Places where they are used include British elections to the European Parliament (excluding Northern Ireland, which uses STV); Israel's Parliament, the Knesset; and The Netherlands' Second Chamber.

Are you For or Against "Party Lists" Voting?

For

Against

hollandnumerics says:

No direct constituency links to elected representatives.

 

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The public voting process is identical to FPTP, but the differences occur inside the parliament when voting occurs there. FPTP gives each elected representative a single vote in the parliament, whereas Parliamentary Proportional Representation (PPR) gives each elected representative an equal share of their party's national vote, e.g. in the UK 2010 General Election the Conservative Party received 10,706,647 votes and gained 306 seats which would give each representative 34989 votes each in parliament, the Labour Party received 8,604,358 votes and gained 258 seats which would give each representative 33350 votes each in parliament, the Liberal Democrat Party received 6,827,938 votes and gained 57 seats which would give each representative 119788 votes each in parliament, and the Green Party received 285,616 votes and gained 1 seat which would give their representative 285,616 votes in parliament. Other parties receiving more than a specific number of votes nationally (say 1%, which in 2010 was 29,653,638/100=296,536) would be allocated a single extra seat each, and get the corresponding number of votes in parliament.

This voting method was devised by Philip R Holland.

Are you For or Against "Parliamentary Proportional Representation" Voting?

For

hollandnumerics says:

Constituency links to elected representatives are maintained, except for the small number of extra seats given to the small parties.

hollandnumerics says:

Appears to be exactly the same as FPTP for the voting electorate, so no need to be taught how the new voting procedure works.

Against

hollandnumerics says:

The complexities of the voting changes are in the parliament itself, and will require adjustments whenever by-elections between general elections change the number of votes received by each of the parties.

 

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