The plurality electoral system (or first past the post electoral system), is a voting system for single-member districts. The name "first past the post" (abbreviated FPTP or FPP) is an analogy to horse racing; the system is also variously called winner-take-all or relative majority. In political science, it is known as Single-Member District Plurality or SMDP. When this system is in use at all levels of politics it may result in a two-party system, based on single seat district voting systems. However, the system of forming a government is also crucial. It is used in some former British colonies [1] and is used in 43 of the 191 countries in the United Nations. Some believe the system results in stable government but it can elect a candidate who is opposed by a majority of voters. A voting system is a process that allows a group of people to express their tolerances or preferences about a number of options, and then selects one or more of those options, typically in a way meant to satisfy many of the voters. ... Horse-racing is an equestrian sporting activity which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times were an early example, as was the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. ... Political science is a social science discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. ...

Overview

The term "first past the post" refers to a now seldom-used analogy with horse racing, where the winner is the first to pass a particular point (in this case a plurality of votes), upon which all other runners automatically and completely lose ("winner take all"). There is, however, no "post" that the winning candidate must pass in order to win, they are just required to receive the largest number of votes in their favour. This sometimes results in the alternate name "furthest past the post". Analogy is the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... Horse-racing is an equestrian sporting activity which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times were an early example, as was the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. ... Voting is a method of decision making wherein a group such as a meeting or an electorate attempts to gauge its opinion—usually as a final step following discussions or debates. ...

Duverger's law predicts that constituencies that use first-past-the-post systems will become two-party systems. Duvergers Law is a principle which asserts that a first-past-the-post election system or in other words, a Single-member, Simple-plurality system, naturally leads to a two-party system. ... A two-party system is a type of party system where only two political parties have a realistic chance of winning an election. ...

Current events

The United Kingdom continues to use the first-past-the-post electoral system for general elections, and for local government elections in England and Wales. Changes to the UK system have been proposed, and alternatives were examined by the Jenkins Committee in the late 1990s but no major changes have been implemented. Canada also uses this system for national and provincial elections. In May 2005 the Canadian province of British Columbia had a referendum on abolishing single-member district plurality in favour of multi-member districts with the Single Transferable Vote system after the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform made a recommendation for the reform. The referendum obtained 57% of the vote, but failed to meet the 60% requirement for passing. The Jenkins Committee (or Commission) was a body appointed by the United Kingdom government in the late 1990s to examine the feasiblity of alterting the electoral system used in UK general elections. ... The 1990s in its most obvious sense refers to the years 1990 to 1999. ... Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendour without diminishment) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Area 944,735 km² (5th) • Land 925,186 km² • Water 19,549 km² (2. ... This STV ballot for the Australian Senate illustrates group voting tickets. ... Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform can refer to: Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform (British Columbia) Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform (Ontario) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand are notable examples of countries within the UK, or with previous links to it, that use non-FPTP electoral systems. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Travel guide to Scotland from Wikitravel Transport in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history Caledonia List of not fully sovereign nations Subdivisions of Scotland National parks (Scotland) Traditional music of Scotland Flower of Scotland Wars of Scottish Independence National Trust for Scotland Historic houses in Scotland Castles in Scotland Museums in... Royal motto: Quis separabit (Latin: Who will separate?) Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685,267 122/km² NUTS 1...

Recent examples of nations which have undergone democratic reforms but have not adopted the FPTP system include South Africa, almost all of the former Eastern bloc nations, Russia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Eastern bloc During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ...

Procedures

Each voter in a given electoral district selects one candidate. All votes are counted and the candidate with more votes than any of the other candidates is the winner. The winner represents the entire electoral district. A constituency is any cohesive corporate unit or body bound by shared structures, goals or loyalty. ...

Examples

Simple example

The election of a Member of Parliament in the UK is a well known example of the First Past the Post electoral system. But the system is also used on a smaller scale. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ...

For this example, consider the election for the president of a school class. Each class has a president, who sits on a school council. Further assume that, in this imaginary school, male and female students disagree with each other on most issues, and students prefer to vote for others of the same sex as themselves.

In our hypothetical election, there are three candidates: Amy, Brian and Chloe. Each class member gets a ballot, with these three names on it. Each voter must put an "X" by one of the names on their ballot.

The election for class president

After the election finishes, the papers are sorted into three piles--one for votes for Amy, one for votes for Brian, and one for votes for Chloe.

The largest pile decides the winner. If Amy's pile has 11 votes, Brian's has 16, and Chloe's has 13, Brian wins.

Notice that there were a total of 40 votes cast, and the winner had only 16 of them — only 40%.

Note that the class members (the "electors") only vote once, and their votes help to choose both a class president and a member of the school council (the same person).

The election for school council

Suppose that all the other classes hold similar elections. Across all the classes, 8 of the class presidents that were elected were girls, and 9 were boys. That makes the boys the overall winner. The only influence that the pupils in this particular class had was to vote for Amy, Brian or Chloe to represent themselves.

Some might argue that a boy won for this class because there were two girls, who "split the vote": some of the girls in the class voted for Amy and others for Chloe. Perhaps if Amy had not been a candidate, all the girls would have voted for Chloe and she would have won this class; this in turn would make the girls the winners of the whole council. Arguments exactly like this, but on a larger scale, are common wherever there are plurality elections.

More complex example

Imagine an election for the capital of Tennessee, a state in the United States that is over 500 miles (800 km) east-to-west, and only 110 miles (180 km) north-to-south. In this vote, the candidates for the capital are Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. The population breakdown by metro area is as follows: Census. ... State nickname: Volunteer State Other U.S. States Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Governor Phil Bredesen (D) Senators Bill Frist (R) Lamar Alexander (R) Official language(s) English Area 109,247 km² (36th)  - Land 106,846 km²  - Water 2,400 km² (2. ... Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, of which it is the county seat. ... The Nashville skyline Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... City nickname: Scenic City (official), River City, Chatty, ChatTown, Chattavegas Location Location within the U.S. State of Tennessee Government Cities in Tennessee Tennessee Mayor Ron Littlefield Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 370. ... City nickname: The Marble City, K-Town, Big Orange Country, Knox Vegas Location Location within the U.S. State of Tennessee Government Cities in Tennessee Tennessee Mayor Bill Haslam Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 254. ...

• Memphis: 826,330
• Nashville: 510,784
• Chattanooga: 285,536
• Knoxville: 335,749

If the voters cast their ballot based strictly on geographic proximity, the voters' preferences might be as follows:

If voting follows sincere preferences, Memphis is selected with the most votes. Note that this system does not require that the winner have a majority, but only a plurality. That is, Memphis wins because it has the most votes, even though more than half of the voters preferred another option and in each region Memphis was the last place choice. A simple majority is the most common requirement in voting for a measure to pass, especially in deliberative bodies and small organizations. ... A plurality (or relative majority) is the largest share of something, which may or may not be a majority. ...

Compare this to the situation in UK

http://www.charter88.com/images/prpostcard1.jpg

The Independent Commission on the Voting System, popularly known as the Jenkins Commission after its chairman Roy Jenkins, was a commission into possible reform of the United Kingdom electoral system. The Independent Commission on the Voting System, popularly known as the Jenkins Commission after its chairman Roy Jenkins, was a commission into possible reform of the United Kingdom electoral system. ...

Advantages

Fewer parties

First-past-the-post tends to reduce the number of political parties to a greater extent than most other methods, thus making it more likely that a single party will hold a majority of legislative seats. (In the United Kingdom, 18 out of 22 General Elections since 1922 have produced a majority government.)

Some argue that this is an advantage, in that single party rule enables quicker decision-making with less need for back and forth negotiation.

Multi-party coalitions, on the other hand, require consent among all coalition partners to pass legislation, which some argue gives small parties a disproportionate amount of power. In the UK, arguments for plurality often look to Italy where the frequent government changeovers are presented as undesirable.

Single-member districts also mean that parties need to appeal to a wide cross-section of the populace rather than a political niche. Some argue that this discourages "extremist" parties.

Simplicity

Plurality may well be the simplest of all voting systems. This implies specific advantages. It is likely to be quicker, and easier to administer; this may also imply that an election costs less to run. It may also have an effect on voters, because it is easy to explain and understand. Alternative voting systems may alienate some voters who find the systems hard to understand, and who therefore feel detached from the direct effect of their own vote.

In addition, not all voters see party politics or policies as a major issue. Some voters see an election primarily as a form of recruitment for an individual representative, a point of contact between the state and themselves. FPTP gives such voters a direct choice of single candidate, with no extra votes to be shared or balanced between parties. This may be especially important to voters who want to vote for individuals based on particular ethical frameworks that are not party aligned, and who do not want their vote to have a "side effect" of electing others they may not approve of.

Each representative must be a winner

Sometimes, the voters are in favour of a political party, but do not like specific candidates. An example was the premier of Alberta, Don Getty. His government was re-elected in 1989, but because of voter dissatisfaction with the way the government was led, Getty, the leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, was not re-elected by voters from his electoral district. Motto: Fortis et Liber (Strong and free) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Edmonton Largest city Calgary Lieutenant-Governor Norman Kwong Premier Ralph Klein (PC) Area 661,848 km² (6th) • Land 642,317 km² • Water 19,531 km² (2. ... Donald Ross Getty (born August 30, 1933), Canadian politician, was Premier of Alberta and leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party between 1985 and 1992. ... The Alberta Progressive Conservative Association is a provincial right-of-centre party in the Canadian province of Alberta. ...

However this can also have the opposite effect. A candidate who is very popular among the electorate in general may lose if the candidate or the candidate's party is unpopular or has caused dissatisfaction in his or her seat. An example was how Winston Churchill lost the 1945 UK Parliamentary elections. Churchill had over a 90% approval rating, but the Labour Party won overall defeating Churchill's Conservative Party and making Clement Attlee the Prime Minister. The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The name Labour Party or Labor Party is used by several political parties around the world. ... The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the centre-right in the United Kingdom. ... The Right Honourable Sir Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. ...

Similarly, in the 1999 Ontario provincial election, Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservative party was re-elected to a majority government, but symbolic of the growing discontent among voters about cuts to education, his education minister and strong ally was resoundingly defeated by the opposition candidate. Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Area 1,076,395 km² (4th) • Land 917,741 km² • Water 158,654 km² (14. ... Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945, in Toronto, Ontario) was the twenty-second Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. ... The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party of Ontario, also known as Tories) is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. ...

It is often claimed that because each electoral district votes for its own representative, the elected candidate is held accountable to his own voters, thereby helping to prevent incompetent, fraudulent or corrupt behaviour by elected candidates. The voters in the electoral district can easily replace him since they have full power over who they want to represent them. In the absence of effective recall legislation, however, the electors must wait until the end of the representative's term. Also, it is generally possible for candidates to be elected if the party regards them as important even if they are fairly unpopular, by moving the candidate to a safe seat which the party is unlikely to lose or by getting a candidate in a safe seat to step down.

Stable governments

The party with the best election result commonly wins a majority percentage of the seats. Coalition governments are therefore the exception rather than the rule.

Extremist parties are excluded

Extremist parties rarely have support enough to win any seats under plurality electoral system. In contrast, it has been argued that the collapse of Weimar Germany was in part due to the way in which the proportional electoral system gave a toe-hold to extremist groups. The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (in German Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy was abolished following the nations defeat in World...

Disadvantages

Fewer parties

FPTP's tendency toward fewer parties and more frequent one-party rule can also produce disadvantages.

One such disadvantage is that the government may not consider as wide a range of perspectives and concerns. It is entirely possible that a voter will find that all major parties agree on a particular issue. In this case, the voter will not have any meaningful way of expressing a dissenting opinion through his or her vote.

Another disadvantage is that fewer choices are offered to the voters, often pressuring voters to vote for a candidate whom they largely disagree with, in order to oppose a candidate whom they disagree with even more. (See tactical voting below.) The likely result of this is that candidates will less closely reflect the viewpoints of those who vote for them. The First Past the Post electoral system, is a voting system for single-member districts. ...

It may also be argued that one-party rule is more likely to lead to radical changes in government policy that are only favored by a plurality or bare majority of the voters, whereas multi-party systems usually require greater consensus in order to make dramatic changes.

Disproportionality

The most commonly expressed disadvantage – perhaps because it is easiest to express and explain – of first-past-the-post is that it frequently produces disproportional results, i.e. results in which a party's share of the seats does not match up with its share of the votes. Thus, substantial bodies of opinion can be left out of the final outcome, and a party can obtain a majority of seats without a majority of the vote. Examples include the recent United Kingdom general election of 2005 where the new government won a majority of the seats with less than 38% of the national vote. The disproportionate nature of this system also means that whole regions may have M.P.s from only one party. The British Conservatives won large majorities of seats in the 1980's on a minority of votes while almost all the Scottish seats were Labour, Liberal or SNP, thus creating tremendous dissatisfaction in Scotland. The governing Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, was looking to secure a third consecutive term in office and to retain a large majority. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A further example of disproportionality arose in the Canadian federal election of 1926 for the province of Manitoba. The province was entitled to 17 seats in that election. The result was very different from how people voted. The Canadian federal election of 1926 was called following an event known as the King_Byng Affair. ...

The Conservatives clearly had the largest number of votes across the province, but received no seats at all.

The usual cause for these disproportionate results is that a party has a large number of votes across the entire territory, but they are spread out across the territory rather than being concentrated in particular constituencies. Parties with less overall support, but where that support is concentrated in particular constituencies, will win plurality in those constituencies over a party with widely distributed support.

This presents a problem because it encourages parties to focus narrowly on the needs and well-being of specific electoral districts where they can be sure to win seats, rather than be sensitive to the sentiments of voters everywhere. A further problem is that usually the party in power has the ability to determine where the boundaries of constituencies lie: thus, in order to secure election results, they may use gerrymandering - that is, redistricting to distort election results by enclosing party voters together in one electoral district. Printed in 1812, this political cartoon illustrates the electoral districts drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the incumbent Democratic-Republican party candidates of Governor Elbridge Gerry over the Federalists. ... The process known as redistricting in the United States and redistribution in many Commonwealth countries is the changing of political borders (in many countries, specifically the electoral district/constituency boundaries) usually in response to periodic census results. ...

It often seems fundamentally unfair that a party should have a substantially greater or lesser share of seats than their share of the vote. A further consequence of the system is that many such elections can be considered won before all votes are tallied, once there are no longer enough uncounted votes to override an established plurality count. Though not necessarily a disadvantage, this can produce a feeling of disenfranchisement among voters when running tallies are reported through the media.

This argument applies to most other single-winner voting systems. A voting system is a process that allows a group of people to express their tolerances or preferences about a number of options, and then selects one or more of those options, typically in a way meant to satisfy many of the voters. ...

Regionalism

FPTP also encourages regional parties which can be very popular in one geographical region but have little or no support in other parts of the electorate.

Tactical voting

To a much greater extent than most other methods, plurality electoral systems encourage the tactical voting technique known as "compromising". Voters are pressured to vote for one of the two candidates they predict are most likely to win, even if they ideally do not want to elect either of them, because a vote for any other candidate will be likely to be wasted and have no impact on the final result. In voting systems, tactical voting (or strategic voting) occurs when a voter misrepresents his or her sincere preferences in order to gain a more favorable outcome. ...

In the Tennessee example given above, voters from Chattanooga and Knoxville may feel that their votes have been wasted, since they had no effect on the final result. If all the voters for Chattanooga and Knoxville had instead voted for Nashville, Nashville would have received 58% of the vote and won; and while not ideal for the voters living nearer Chattanooga and Knoxville, this would still be preferable to Memphis winning.

The difficulty is sometimes summed up, in extreme terms, as "All votes for anyone other than the second place, are actually votes for the winner", because by voting for other candidates, they have denied those votes to the second place candidate who could have won had they received them. It is often claimed by United States Democrats that the liberal Al Gore lost the 2000 Presidential Election to the conservative George W. Bush because some voters on the far left voted for Ralph Nader of the Green Party, who presumably would have preferred Gore to Bush. The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Albert Arnold Gore Jr. ... Map The U.S. presidential election of 2000 took place on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American activist lawyer who opposes the power of large corporations and has worked for decades on environmental, consumer rights, and pro-democracy issues. ... In American politics, the Green Party is a third party which has been active in some areas since the 1980s, but first gained widespread public attention for Ralph Naders presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. ...

Because voters have to predict in advance who the top two candidates will be, this can cause significant perturbation to the system:

• Substantial power is given to the media. Some voters will tend to believe their viewpoint on who the leading contenders are likely to be in the election. Even voters who distrust the media will know that those candidates who receive the most media attention will be the most popular with other voters, and thus most likely to be in one of the top two.

• A newly appointed candidate, who is in fact supported by the majority of voters, may be considered (due to their lack of a track record) to not be likely to become one of the top two candidates; thus, they will receive a reduced number of votes, which will then give them a reputation as a low poller in future elections, compounding the problem.

• The system may promote votes against more so than votes for. In the UK, entire campaigns have been organised with the aim of voting against Labour by voting either Conservative or Liberal Democrat based on which is most popular in each constituency, regardless of the voters' opinions of the policies of these parties.

• If enough voters use this tactic, the first-past-the-post system becomes, effectively, runoff voting - a completely different system - where the first round is held in the court of public opinion.

One often-overlooked flaw in the FPTP system is that invariably, voters can select only one candidate in a single-member district, whilst in multi-member districts they can never select more candidates than the number of seats in the district. Some argue that FPTP would work better if electors could cast a vote for as many candidates as they wish. This would allow voters to "vote against" a certain despised candidate if they choose without having to guess at who they should vote for to defeat that candidate, thus eliminating the need for tactical voting. Such a system would also serve to reduce the spoiler effect. Runoff voting is a voting system used in single-seat elections. ... The spoiler effect is a term to describe the effect a candidate can have on a close election, in which their candidacy results in the election being won by a candidate dissimilar to them, rather than a candidate similar to them. ...

Safe seats

A safe seat is one in which a plurality of voters support a particular candidate so strongly that their votes for that candidate are guaranteed in advance of the election. This causes the difficulty that all other voters in the constituency can then make no difference to the result, since the winner of the seat is already known in advance. This results in serious feelings of disenfranchisement, and to abstention. Abstention is a term in parliamentary procedure for when a participant in a vote is not absent, but does not cast a ballot. ...

Wipeout and clean sweep results

Since FPTP combined with single member constituencies generate a winner's bonus, if not winner takes all, the opposition can be left with few if any seats (see above).

It is argued that a weak or absent opposition due to an electoral wipeout is bad for the government. Provincial elections in several Canadian provinces provide suitable examples. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

This is the missing corollary of strong-government argument for FPTP.

Disproportionate influence of Extremist parties

Small, especially when actived and additionally well organized extremist groups can disproportionately change the outcome of a FPTP election by swinging what is called the 50-50% balance of two party systems. In comparison, for election systems using proportional representation small groups win only their proportional share of representation. The first-past-the-post electoral system is a voting system for single-member districts, variously called first-past-the-post (FPTP or FPP), winner-take-all, plurality voting, or relative majority. ... Proportional representation (PR) is any election system which ensures a proportionally representative result of a democratic election, x% of votes should be represented by x% in the democratic institutions, parliament or congress. ...

This mechanism falls within one major reasoning (USA, Voting act, 1970s) favouring two party, FPTP, winner takes all election systems. Even a proportionally small group should have an as large as possible influence on the democratic process, that is, to maximize the perceived and actual "weight" of one single vote, typically in the center but also by the extremes. The first-past-the-post electoral system is a voting system for single-member districts, variously called first-past-the-post (FPTP or FPP), winner-take-all, plurality voting, or relative majority. ...

Where First Past the Post systems are used

Countries that use this system to elect the lower or only house of their legislature include:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bhutan
• Botswana
• Canada
• Dominica
• Ethiopia
• The Gambia
• Ghana
• Grenada
• India
• Italy (Since 1993, In both houses of the Parliament of Italy, an Additional Member System is used where three-quarters of seats are filled by single member plurality. There is currently discussion in the Italian parliament of going back to an analogue system ahead of the 2006 elections.)
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Morocco
• Nepal
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Rwanda
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Kingdom (Parliamentary and local government elections in England and Wales only)
• United States (except for Louisiana)
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

See Table of voting systems by nation

The first past the post election system is used in the Republic of China on Taiwan for executive offices such as county magistrates, mayors, and the president, but not for legislative seats which used the single non-transferable vote system. This has produced an interesting party structure in which there are two broad coalitions of parties which cooperate in executive elections but which compete internally in legislative elections. Source: Making Votes Count, Gary Cox (1997). Italy has been a democratic republic since June 2, 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum (see birth of the Italian Republic). ... The Parliament of Italy (Italian: Parlamento Italiano) is the national parliament of Italy. ... The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ... State nickname: Pelican State Other U.S. States Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) Senators Mary Landrieu (D) David Vitter (R) Official language(s) None; English and French de facto Area 134,382 km² (31st)  - Land 112,927 km²  - Water 21,455 km² (16%) Population... These tables deal with voting to select candidates for office, not for the passing of legislation. ... National motto: None Official language Mandarin Chinese Capital and largest city Taipei President Chen Shui-bian Premier Frank Hsieh Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 138th 35,980 km² 2. ... The Single Non-Transferable Vote or SNTV is an electoral system used in multi-member constituency elections. ... The Republic of China (ROC) currently has jurisdiction over Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores Islands (Penghu) and several smaller islands. ...

India is using a proportional representation system for its upper house. Proportional representation (PR) is any election system which ensures a proportionally representative result of a democratic election, x% of votes should be represented by x% in the democratic institutions, parliament or congress. ...

Ballot types

Ballots can be of two forms. The simplest form is a blank ballot where the name of a candidate is written in by hand. A more structured ballot will list all the candidates and allow a mark to be made by a single candidate. (A ballot with a candidate list can include space for a write-in candidate as well)

Plurality ballot by writing name File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Plurality ballot by marking a listed candidate File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics
• Voting system

Politics is the process and method of gaining or maintaining support for public or common action: the conduct of decision-making for groups. ... A voting system is a process that allows a group of people to express their tolerances or preferences about a number of options, and then selects one or more of those options, typically in a way meant to satisfy many of the voters. ...

External links

• ACE Project: First Past The Post - Detailed explanation of first-past-the-post voting
• The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform says the new proportional electoral system it proposes for British Columbia will improve the practice of democracy in the province.
• ASSEMBLY AUDIO AND VIDEO Below, you'll find audio and video recordings of six Learning Phase weekends, a meeting held in Prince George and the six Deliberation Phase weekends. The Learning Phase and Deliberation Phase recordings were broadcast on Hansard TV during 2004. - week 5 gives a detailed description by David Farrell, of the University of Manchester (England), Elizabeth McLeay of Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.