Understanding Electoral Systems and Voting Methods in Political Science

1. Political Science and International Relations Elections and electoral systems Operační program Vzdělávání pro konkurenceschopnostNázev projektu: Inovace magisterského studijního programu Fakulty ekonomiky a managementu Registrační číslo projektu: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0326

2. Goal of lecture • To define electoral systems • To explain function of elections districts • To characterize the structure of voting and voting formula • To define and explain majority and plural electoral systems

3. Electoral system • The set of technical rules for distribution of mandates. It is the method of conversion of votes to mandates. • Electoral system consists from three elements – election district, structure of voting and voting formula. Each element is defined by the electoral law. • Election district – the area where exact number of mandates are distributed, place where votes are transformed into mandates independently to other districts. Its size is connected to number of voters and its strenght is connected to number of mandates.

4. Ballot structure and voting formula • Many types of list ticket exists: a) Rigid list: list can´t be changed by preferational votes, cumulation or panachure. b) open (flexible) list: list can be modified by preferational voting c) free list: list can be modified by cumulation or panachure • Voting formula – proportional or majority effects - The main difference is in the effect of (dis)proportionality between number of votes and gained mandates

5. Kinds of majorities • A majority is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset considered; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset considered may consist of less than half the set's elements. In British English, majority and plurality are often used as synonyms, and the term majority is also alternatively used to refer to the winning margin, i.e. the number of votes separating the first-place finisher from the second-place finisher. • A majority may be called a simple majority to contrast with other types of majority: an overall majority, in parliamentary systems, is the difference of legislators between the government and its opposition; an absolute majority is a majority of all electors, not just those who voted; and a supermajority is a stronger majority than a simple majority.

6. Proportional methods • Truly proportional methods make some guarantee of proportionality by making each winning option represent approximately the same number of voters. This number is called a quota. For example, if the quota is 1000 voters, then each elected candidate reflects the opinions of 1000 voters, within a margin of error. • Most proportional systems in use are based on party-list proportional representation, in which voters vote for parties instead of for individual candidates. For each quota of votes a party receives, one of their candidates wins a seat on the legislature. The methods differ in how the quota is determined or, equivalently, how the proportions of votes are rounded off to match the number of seats. • The methods of seat allocation can be grouped overall into highest averages methods and largest remainder methods. Largest remainder methods set a particular quota based on the number of voters, while highest averages methods, such as the Sainte-Laguë method and the d'Hondt method, determine the quota indirectly by dividing the number of votes the parties receive by a sequence of numbers.

7. Semi-proportional methods An alternative method called cumulative voting is a semi-proportional voting system in which each voter has n votes, where n is the number of seats to be elected (or, in some potential variants, a different number, e.g. 6 votes for each voter where there are 3 seats). Voters can distribute portions of their vote between a set of candidates, fully upon one candidate, or a mixture. It is considered a proportional system in allowing a united coalition representing a m/(n+1) fraction of the voters to be guaranteed to elect m seats of an n-seat election. For example in a 3-seat election, 3/4 of the voters (if united on 3 candidates) can guarantee control over all three seats. (In contrast, plurality at large allows a united coalition (majority) (50%+1) to control all the seats.) Cumulative voting is a common way of holding elections in which the voters have unequal voting power, such as in corporate governance under the "one share, one vote" rule. Cumulative voting is also used as a multiple-winner method, such as in elections for a corporate board. Cumulative voting is not fully proportional because it suffers from the same spoiler effect of the plurality voting system without a run-off process. A group of like-minded voters divided among "too many" candidates may fail to elect any winners, or elect fewer than they deserve by their size. The level of proportionality depends on how well-coordinated the voters are.

8. Majoritarian methods Many multiple-winner voting methods are simple extensions of single-winner methods, without an explicit goal of producing a proportional result. Bloc voting, or plurality-at-large, has each voter vote for N options and selects the top N as the winners. Because of their propensity for landslide victories won by a single winning slate of candidates, bloc voting and similar nonproportional methods are called "majoritarian". Single-winner method - Single-winner systems can be classified based on their ballot type. In one vote systems, a voter picks one choice at a time. In ranked voting systems, each voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In rated voting systems, voters give a score to each candidate. The most prevalent single-winner voting method, by far, is plurality (also called "first-past-the-post", "relative majority", or "winner-take-all"), where each voter votes for one choice, and the choice that receives the most votes wins, even if it receives less than a majority of votes.

9. Majoritarian methods Runoff methods hold multiple rounds of plurality voting to ensure that the winner is elected by a majority. Top-two runoff voting, the second most common method used in elections, holds a runoff election between the two highest polling options if there is no absolute majority (above 50%). In elimination runoff elections, the weakest candidate(s) are eliminated until there is a majority. A primary election process is also used as a two round runoff voting system. The two candidates or choices with the most votes in the open primary ballot progress to the general election. The difference between a runoff and an open primary is that a winner is never chosen in the primary, while the first round of a runoff can result in a winner if one candidate has over 50% of the vote. In the Random ballot method, each voter votes for one option and a single ballot is selected at random to determine the winner. This is mostly used as a tiebreaker for other methods.

10. Political Science and International Relations Elections and electoral systems Operační program Vzdělávání pro konkurenceschopnostNázev projektu: Inovace magisterského studijního programu Fakulty ekonomiky a managementu Registrační číslo projektu: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0326