Glossary
Given possible confusion with terminology, we recommend reading
the glossary.
Additional Member System -Another
term for a mixed member proportional system.
Alternative Vote (AV) - A preferential,
plurality-majority system
used in single-member districts in which
voters use numbers to mark their preferences on the ballot paper. A
candidate who receives over 50% of first-preferences is declared
elected. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority of
first-preferences, votes are re-allocated unfit one candidate has an
absolute majority of votes cast
Apparentement - A device used in
some list proportional
representation systems which enables separate parties to
declare themselves linked for the purpose of seat allocation.
Ballot structure - The way in
which electoral choices are presented on the ballot paper. Ballots
can be either ordinal or categorical.
Bi-cameral Parliament - A
legislature comprised of two houses, usually known as an upper
house and a lower house.
Block Vote - A plurality-majority
system used in multi-member districts in which electors
have as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. Voting can
be either candidate-centered or
party-centered. Counting
is identical to a First Past the Post system, with the
candidates with the highest vote totals winning the seats. Also
known as or Bloc Vote.
Candidate-centered Ballot - A
form of ballot in which an elector chooses between candidates.
Categorical Ballot - A form of
ballot in which only a single choice for a candidate or party can be
made.
Choice voting - The single
transferable vote form of proportional representation, in which
voters rank candidates in order of choice, all candidates who reach
the threshold are elected, surplus votes
are distributed to voters' next choices, and the candidates with the
fewest votes are successively eliminated until all seats are filled.
Closed List - A
form of list proportional
representation in which electors are restricted to voting
for a party only, and cannot express a preference for any candidate
within a party list.
Communal Roll - A register of voters
in which ascriptive criteria such as race or ethnicity determine
which electors can enroll to vote, and which candidates can be
elected, within the wider electoral contest.
Compensatory Seats - The list
PR seats in a mixed member proportional
system which are awarded to parties on the basis of their
proportion of the national vote and designed to correct any
disproportionality in the results of the elections held in plurality-majority
district seats.
Constituency - A synonym for district,
used predominantly in Anglophone countries outside of the United
States.
Contiguous districts - Districts
comprised of areas which are geographically adjoined or
touching.
Cross Cutting Cleavages - Political
allegiances of voters which cut across societal cleavages of
ethnicity, religion, or class.
Cumulative Vote - The capacity of
voters within some voting systems to cast more than one vote for a
favored candidate.
d'Hondt Formula - One way
of working out list PR results
by the highest average method. Uses
divisors of 1,2,3,4, etc.
Democratic Consolidation - The
process by which a nation's political institutions and democratic
procedures become legitimized and broadly accepted by both political
actors and the wider population.
Distribution Requirements
- The requirement that to win election a candidate must not
merely win a specified proportion of the vote nationally but also a
specified degree of support from different regions.
District - Geographic areas into which
a country is divided for electoral purposes. Districts may return
one member to parliaments or more than one.
District Magnitude - The
number of members to be elected in each district.
Droop Quota - Used in highest
average list PR and STV electoral
systems to determine how seats are awarded. The threshold is intended to be the lowest vote total that only the winning number of candidates can get. The quota is ascertained by the following formula: total vote divided by the number of seats plus one, then one is added to the product. [Note: If, however, choice voting with fractional transfers is used, the quota is ascertained by the following formula: total vote divided by the number of seats plus one, then a pre-determined small fraction of a whole vote is added to the product (ie: .01 or .001 votes). The addition of this small fraction is intended to ensure that only the desired number of can reach the treshold, while using a whole number would raise the treshold too high. The additional fraction to be used should be determined in advance of the election.]
Electoral Formula - That part
of the electoral system dealing specifically with the translation of
votes into seats.
Electoral Law - The
constitutional and legal provisions governing all aspects of the
electoral process.
Electoral System - That part
of the electoral rules which determines electoral outcomes; chiefly,
the electoral formula, the
ballot structure, and district
magnitude.
First Past the Post (FPTP) - The simplest
form of plurality-majority
electoral system, -single-member districts, a
categorical ballot and candidate-centered
voting. The winning candidate is the one who gains more votes
than any other candidate, but not necessarily a majority of
votes.
Free List - A form of list
proportional representation which provides for apparentement
or cumulative voting.
Full
Representation (PR) - Any system which consciously
attempts to reduce the disparity between a party's share of the
national vote and its share of the parliamentary seats. For example,
if a party wins 40 per cent of the votes, it should win
approximately 40 per cent of the seats.
Gerrymandering
- The deliberate manipulation of district boundaries
so as to advantage or disadvantage a particular interest.
Hagenbach-Bischoff Formula - Another
term for the Droop Quota.
Hare Quota - Used in largest
remainder PR electoral
systems to determine how seats are awarded. The quota is
ascertained by the following formula: total vote divided by the
number of seats.
Heterogeneous - Diverse and/or
inter-mixed.
Highest Average Method - A formula used
with list PR systems to
translate votes into seats. Party vote totals are divided by a
series of devisors, under d'Hondt (by 1,2,3, etc.) or Sainte-Lagu (by 1,3,5, etc.) formula. After each stage the party with the highest
average wins the seat. The count continues with party vote totals
being divided by sequential numbers until all seats are filled.
Homogeneous - Similar and/or
uniform.
Imperiali Quota - Sometimes used in largest
remainder PR electoral
systems to determine how seats are awarded. The quota is
ascertained by the following formula: total vote divided by the
number of seats plus two.
Index of Disproportionality - A
figure which illustrates the collective disparity between the votes
cast for parties in an election and the seats in parliament they
win.
Invalid Votes - Ballots which,
due to accidental or deliberate errors of marking on the part of
voters, are unable to be included in the count.
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)- Instant
runoff voting is a winner-take-all, constitutionally protected,
voting system that ensures a winning candidate will receive an
absolute majority of votes rather than a simple plurality. IRV
eliminates the need for runoff elections by allowing voters to rank
their candidates in order of preference.
Largest Remainder Method - The
Hare, Droop and Imperiali
calculation methods which translate votes into seats within list
PR systems. There are two stages to the count. First,
parties are awarded seats in proportion to the number of quotas they
fulfill (quotas vary depending on which of the three systems are
used). Second, remaining seats are awarded to parties on the
basis of the left over votes they possess after the 'quota' stage of
the count. Largest remainder seats are allocated in order of vote
size.
Lemas - A form of apparentement
used predominantly in Latin America.
Limited Vote - A plurality-majority
system used in multi-member district in
which electors have more than one vote but fewer votes than there
are candidates to be elected. Counting is identical to a first
past the post system, with the candidates with the highest
vote totals winning the seats.
List Proportional Representation
(List PR) - In its most simple form List PR involves each party
presenting a list of candidates to the electorate, voters vote for a
party, and parties receive seats in proportion to their overall
share of the national vote. Winning candidates are taken from the
lists. Lists can be open,
closed,
or free.
Lower House - The first, and usually most
important, chamber in a bicameral
parliament.
Malapportionment - The uneven
distribution of voters between electoral districts.
Majority-Plurality (Two-Round
System) - In French Two-Round elections any candidate who has
received the votes of over 12.5 per cent of the registered
electorate in the first round can stand in the second round. Whoever
wins the highest numbers of votes in the second round is then
declared aimed, regardless of whether they have won an absolute
majority or not. We therefore refer to it as majority-plurality
variant of the two-round system.
Majority-Runoff (Two-Round System)
- The most common method for the second round of voting in a
Two-Round System is a straight 'run-off" contest between the
two highest vote-winners from the first round - this we term a
majority-runoff system.
Manufactured Majority - Where
a single party wins less than 50 per cent of the valid votes, but an
absolute majority of the parliamentary seats.
Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) - Systems
in which a proportion of the parliament (usually half is elected
from plurality-majority districts, while the remaining
members are chosen from PR lists. Under MMP the list
PR seats compensate for any disproportionality produced by
the district seat results.
Multi-Member District - A district
from which more than one member is elected to parliament.
Open List - A form of list
proportional representation in which electors can express a
preference for a candidate within a party list, as well as voting
for the party.
Ordinal Ballot - A form of
ballot in which a voter's choice can be rank-ordered (as for full
representation systems), changed between one round of voting
and the next (as for two- round systems) or
split between two or more parties or candidates (as for Block and
panachage list PR systems).
Panachage - A device used in some list
proportional representation systems which enables an elector
to vote for more than one candidate across different party lists.
Parallel System - A semi-
proportional system in which full
representation is used in conjunction with a plurality-majority
system but where, unlike MMP, the PR
seats do not compensate for any disproportionality arising from
elections to the plurality-
majority seats.
Party Block Vote (PB) - A form
of the Block Vote in which electors choose between parties rather
than candidates. The successful party will typically win every seat
in the district.
Party-centered Ballot - A
form of ballot in which an elector chooses between parties.
Plurality-Majority Systems
- The distinguishing feature of plurality-majority systems is
that they almost always use single-member
districts. In a first past the post system,
the winner is the candidate with a plurality of votes, but not
necessarily an absolute majority of the votes. When this system is
used in multi-member districts it becomes the
block vote. Majority systems, such as the
Australian Alternative Vote and the
French two-round system, try to ensure
that the winning candidate receives an absolute majority of votes
cast.
Preferential Voting - Electoral
systems in which voters can rank-order candidates on the
ballot paper in order of their choice. The Alternative
Vote, the Single Transferable Vote and
the system used to elect the Sri Lankan president are all examples
of preferential voting. We prefer the term, choice voting, for
the proportional form of preferential voting, which is also referred
to the single transferable vote (STV).
Proportional Representation (PR)- See Full
Representation
Quota - The threshold for winning a
seat in full
representation systems.
Regional Fiefdom - A situation
in which one party wins all, or nearly all, of the seats in a
particular geographic region.
Reserved Seats - Seats in which
some ascriptive criteria such as religion, ethnicity, language,
gender etc. is a requirement for election.
Sainte-Lagu Formula- One way of
working out list PR results
by the highest average method. Uses
divisors of 1,3,5,7, etc.
Semi-Proportional Systems (Semi-PR) - Those
electoral systems which
provide, on average, results which fall some way in between the
proportionality of PR systems and the
disproportionality of plurality-majority
systems.
Single-Member District - A district
from which only one member is elected to parliament.
Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV) - A semi-proportional
system which combines multi-member district with
a first past the post method of vote counting,
and in which electors have only one vote.
Single Transferable Vote
(STV) - The choice voting form of
proportional representation. It is a preferential
proportional representation system used in multi-member
districts. To gain election, candidates must surpass a specified
quota of first-preference votes. Voters' preferences are
re-allocated to other continuing candidates when an unsuccessful
candidate is excluded or if an elected candidate has a surplus.
Threshold - The minimum level of
support which a party needs to gain representation; usually
expressed as a percentage of the total vote.
Two-Tier Districting - Where seats are
awarded to parties from both single member
districts and national PR lists, or both regional and
national PR lists.
Two-Round System (TRS) - A plurality-majority
system in which a second election is held if no candidate
achieves an absolute majority of votes in the first election.
Upper House - The second, and usually
less important chamber of a bicameral
parliament .
Wasted Votes - Those votes which did not
ultimately count towards the election of a particular candidate or
party. |