List of Voting Systems
Description:
A list of voting methods for electing members of a legislature.
The legislature is the branch of government that has the power to draft, amend, pass and repeal laws. Legislatures are known by many names, including parliament and congress (although these terms are often used to describe specific types of legislatures).
There are different voting systems that can be used to elect the legislative branch of government. A system could be based on voting for local candidates, political parties, or both. A system's voting method could involve voters giving one tick, several ticks (or a number), or a preference ranking.
 |
| Row # |
Title |
Description |
| 1 |
First Past the Post (FPP or FPTP)
|
The area gets divided into a fixed number of electorates, equal to the number of seats in the legislature. Each voter may vote for one candidate standing in their local electorate. The local candidate with the most votes wins that electorate's seat.
Although easy to understand, FPP can have problems with gerrymandering, vote splitting, and disproportionate/undemocratic representation.
USA's congress and Britain's parliament are currently elected using FPP.
|
| 2 |
Proportional Representation (PR)
|
Each voter may vote for one party. If a party gets x% of the votes, they get approximately x% of the seats. A PR system could include a threshold, where only parties with a % of the votes greater than the threshold get seats.
Proportional representation is used in much of Western Europe.
|
| 3 |
Supplementary Member
|
Supplementary member voting is a blend of FPP and PR, with fixed numbers of party and electorate seats. Each voter gets two votes: a party vote and an electorate vote. Supplementary member is also known as mixed member majoritarian (MMM).
Countries using supplementary member voting (or some other form of parallel voting) include: Andorra, Armenia, Georgia, Guinea, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Lithuania, Monaco, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Seychelles, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tunisia and Ukraine.
|
| 4 |
Mixed Members Proportional (MMP)
|
MMP is like supplementary member voting but the party vote has an overwhelming influence over the shape of parliament. Each voter gets two votes: a party vote and an electorate vote.
The winning candidate of each electorate gets a seat. If a party gets a smaller % of the legislature's seats through electorates than their % of total party votes, the party's electorate seats are topped-up with seats determined by the party vote, until they get a % of seats approximately equal to their % of party votes.
Unlike supplementary member voting, MMP doesn't have a predetermined fixed number of seats due to the possibility of an 'over-hang' caused by excess electorate seats.
Countries using MMP include: New Zealand, Germany (federal parliament and most of its state parliaments), Scotland and Wales.
|
| 5 |
Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV)
|
SNTV is like FPP but several candidates are elected from each electorate. Each voter may vote for one candidate standing in their electorate. If x candidates are to be elected from an electorate, the x candidates with the most votes get elected.
Countries using SNTV include: Afghanistan, Jordan, Indonesia (upper house) and Thailand (senate).
|
| 6 |
Single Transferable Vote (STV)
|
STV is like SNTV, but voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than give a single tick. The resolution of the rankings is done in a way which minimises vote wastage and has an outcome that approximates proportional representation for that electorate.
Countries using STV include: Ireland and Malta.
|
| 7 |
Preferential Voting
|
This is like STV (and in some countries is referred to as STV), but only one candidate is elected from each electorate. It is essentially FPP but using a ranked preference voting method to overcome the vote splitting problem that FPP suffers from.
Various forms of preferential voting are used in Australia to elect the House of Representatives and Senate.
|
| 8 |
Cumulative Voting
|
Cumulative voting is like SNTV but each voter gets more than one vote. For example if each voter gets 10 votes, a voter could choose to give 7 votes to candidate A, 2 votes to candidate B, and 1 vote to candidate C. If x candidates are to be elected from an electorate, the x candidates with the most votes get elected.
A form of cumulative voting is used in the Norfolk Islands, which prevents voters from giving all of their votes to a single candidate.
|
| 9 |
Block Voting
|
Block voting is like cumulative voting, but a voter may not give more than one of their votes to the same candidate. If voters get fewer votes than the number of candidates elected, then it is partial block voting. Block voting is also known as plurality block voting and plurality-at-large.
Block voting is used in Mauritius. Partial block voting is used in Gibraltar and Spain (senate).
|
| 10 |
Preferential Block Voting
|
Preferential block voting is like (plurality) block voting, but the candidates are ranked in order of preference rather than ticked. The overall ranking of candidates is determined through instant runoff.
Preferential block voting differs from STV, in that STV yields a fairly proportional outcome, while preferential block voting can result in a bunch of 'clone' candidates winning.
Preferential block voting was formerly used to elect the Australian senate (1918 to 1948). Previously, block voting was used from 1901.
|
| 11 |
Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) |
Alternative vote plus (AV+) was suggested by the Jenkins Commission as an alternative to Britain's current method of FPP.
The method is like supplementary member, but differs in the following ways:
- The electorate voting method is preferential voting, rather than FPP.
- The party vote covers a group of several nearby electorates rather than the whole nation.
Alternative vote plus is also known as alternative vote top-up.
Currently no country uses this method to elect its legislature. |
Related Lists
List of Ranked Preference Voting Methods
List of Executive Branch Government Systems
Add to this list
- Each row in the following text fields represents one entry in the list.
- Each list entry must have a title and/or URL. Entry descriptions and images are entirely optional.
- The submitted link URLs would be automatically standardised. This will mean that it doesn't matter whether or not you include the https:// (or https//) at the beginning or a / at the end.
- Don't worry if a title, URL or description takes more than one line in the input form. Regardless
of whether the input was entered manually or copied and pasted, this website can distinguish between whether the input going to a new line was due to
its long length or from the use of the enter key.
- New list entries are added to the bottom of the list. Chronologically ordered lists should be ordered from the earliest to the latest.
- If an image is too wide or tall, it would be automatically scaled.
Report this list
Receive Notifications
Receive notifications via email, whenever new list entries are added to this list.
|
