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Proportional Representation
1. Definition
Proportional representation is a system of voting whereby a
party obtains seats in the legislature, proportional to the number
of votes it has collected in the election. Every citizen will have
a chance to vote for any candidate in the province. Every candidate
can get votes from out of the whole province, not from one riding
only.
As recent elections have clearly shown, the “First
past the pole system” does not produce a house that is
a true reflection of the electorate. The governing party has 2/3 of
the seats but is represented by only 40% of the popular vote. The
term “majority vote” is a misnomer of
grotesque proportions. In 1993 the P.C. had two seats in the House,
while it has amassed more that 2 million votes. At the same time
the Reform Party, reportedly a regional party from the West, had
850.000 votes in Ontario, resulting in only one seat. The arguments
for electoral reform are overwhelming. Ignoring them will
eventually result in disaster. More than anything else, it is the
imbalance between the will of the people and what happens in
Parliament that fuels the chronic dissatisfaction that Canadians
have with Government.
2. Number of Seats in the
Legislature
This number has to be established before the elections will be
called. Depending on the number of eligible voters in the province,
this number may from time to time be changed, to reflect the
preferred number of voters per seat. For the sake of argument we
will assume a number of 109 seats.
Various countries have various relationships between the number
of seats in the house and the size of the population. Our number of
seats in the house is quite high. In PR their will almost always be
a coalition government. In a coalition government the role of the
opposition will be different. I expect it to be less adversarial
and hopefully less acrimonious. This is because, unlike our present
system, in PR the government will always be backed up by a majority
of the population. This is an argument for a smaller
house. With PR a house of 100 representatives will be
quite adequate for a population the size of that of British
Columbia.
2. Ridings
The number of ridings equals the number of seats in the
Legislature. The ridings will have to have a near equal number of
eligible voters. A candidate will have to run in a riding. No two
candidates of the same party can run in the same riding. A
candidate must have residence in the riding he/she is running
in.
The system of ridings is not to be abolished. The ridings are
needed for a reliable system of voter registration. Furthermore,
British Columbians who want to have a local representative,
somebody of the area that speaks on their behalf in parliament and
who can be approached with problems and questions. There is still a
strong expectation that the representative works for the local
interest at the provincial level, instead of for the provincial
interest on behalf of his riding. This might be considered as an
immature political attitude, but for now it is a fact of life and
has to be accommodated. Therefore, the ridings are there to stay.
The near equal size of the ridings is important. It gives
candidates a fair opportunity to acquire preferred votes (see
below, par.9)
4. Voters Registry
Voters will have to be registered and, as a rule, will have to
vote in a poll in their neighbourhood. ID will be required and a
voter’s card will have to be shown and handed over. As
is done in the present system the name will be crossed out on the
voters list. Early polls, poll by proxy and voting opportunities
for citizens abroad will be provided.
Electronic voting systems are probably just over the horizon.
That is however not the subject at the moment and will not
interfere with PR.
5. Ballot
In P.R. the ballot is a fairly large sheet of paper that has the
names of all the candidates of all the parties listed, sorted by
the party they represent. The name of the leader of the party is on
the top of the list of his party. His name is highlighted. The
names of the other candidates are printed in an order as is decided
by the party and is called the original order. This order can
change after the election results are in.
For the voting public the ballot will be the biggest visible
change .A strong resistance should be anticipated. It works in many
European countries and there is no reason to believe that it would
not work here. If not a necessity, it is a good idea to print the
ballot in the newspapers before election day to give everybody a
chance to get acquainted with it. It will be easier to
find the candidate of one’s choice if one knows where
to look or it. The ballot will be handed to the voter in a folded
manner and has to be returned in the same fashion.
6. Voting.
A vote is made by marking the name of the party leader or by
marking the name of any other member of that party. A vote for the
leader is a vote for the party After the party leader has
accumulated votes/seat number (see below, par. 7), then the excess
number of votes that he collected will overflow to his party
members. A vote for a member is attributed to that member and is
called a preferred vote. If the member accumulates preferred votes
equal to the votes/seat number, then his seat is guaranteed,
independent of votes accumulated by other members of
his party, including the party leader. He gains a preferred seat,
to which certain privileges can be attached. If the member
accumulates a number of votes smaller than the votes/seat number
then his place on the candidate list of his party will be adjusted.
The member with the highest number of preferred votes will be
listed on the top. The next follow up will be listed below him and
so on.
This is the novel part of this form of PR. This is the very
mechanism where real power is returned into the hands of the
voters. It is even possible that the leader of the party that wins
a majority vote himself may not gain a seat, if the voters do not
like him for whatever reason. I am not aware of any
country at the moment practising this system but that should not be
an argument against it. It is utterly simple with a logic that can
appeal to any voter, independent of his/her sophistication. You
vote for a person, whether that person represents a party or a
philosophy or simply your interests. There will always a person in
the house that is there because of your vote. A rare exception is
where you give your vote to a candidate who collects not enough
votes to collect overflow votes. (See par. 10)
7. Votes/seat number
The total number of valid ballots is divided by the number of
seats in the house and this will be the votes/seat number. It is
the number of votes required to get a seat in the house. For the
sake of argument we will assume 1,264,625 valid ballots and
therefore the votes/seat number will be 11,602
It is necessary to postpone the calculation of this number until
all the ballots are in. With the help of computers this should be
no problem. For reason of safety a parallel counting system should
be set up and during election night estimates of this number can be
made, based on partial results.
8. Tabulating the votes
PARTY VOTES
SEATS EXCESS
VOTES FINAL#SEATS
A
317,421
27
4167
* 28
B
269,365
23
2519
23
C
223,839
19
3401
19
D
166,903
14
4503
14
E
123,993
10
7973
*11
F
89,788
7
8574
* 8
G
73,348
6
3736
6
Total
Ballots
1,264,625
Total Seats
obtained
106 (11,602 votes/seat)
Total excess
ballots
34,813
34,813 ballots translate into three seats, so called leftover
seats. These seats will be assigned to the three parties with the
highest number of excess votes (marked*). This is the
only moment that there is a slight departure from PR. But seats
cannot be divided and therefore, some form of tie breaking has to
happen.
9. Preferred votes
Let us have a closer look at the results of party D: 166,931
votes. The number of votes accumulated by the various members is
shown in Column A. Subsequently, the order of the members will be
adjusted according the number of votes they have, column B. Lastly
the overflow mechanism takes place, from the top down and then from
the bottom up, resulting in the final vote count for each member,
column C.
A
B
C
Leader
103,482
Leader
11,602
#2
3,492
#4
11,602 Preferred Seat!
#3
4,396
#10
11,602
#4
12,497 #6 11,602
#5
3,394
#8
11,602
#6
6,396
#3
11,602
#7
3,898
#9
11.602
#8
5,648
#7
11,602
#9
3,994
#2
11,602
#10
8,402 #5
11,602
#11
1,290
#19
11,602
#12
1,385
#18
11,602
#13
1,297 #12
11,602
#14
459
#13
11,602
#15
398
#11
4,503
#16
937
#17
0
#17
1,289 #16
0
#18
592
#14
0
#19
1,785
#15
0
Total: 166,931 Votes
As noted before, the original order as assigned by the party does
not necessarily coincide with the voters preference. Once again
this is the real power of PR: it puts the decision power where it
belongs: the voter. The 4503 votes that are left over will go to
another party.
10. Vote distribution
The leader of the party and one more member have accumulated
more votes then they need for their seat. The overflow mechanism
will come in action. It is clear that the preference of the party
did not coincide with the preference of the voters. Therefore,
before the overflow mechanism can be activated, the original order
of the candidates has to be changed into the order in which they
have accumulated votes, the definite order. The excess votes of the
leader and member #4 totals 92,775 They will overflow down the list
down to the 14th member #13. By that time there are 693 overflow
votes left and the remainder of the candidates have together 3810
votes. This adds up to 4503 votes and is not enough for a seat. The
total number of excess votes of all the parties was 34,813 and this
was to be allotted to the three parties with the highest number of
excess votes. The last five members are not elected to the
house.
Although these members are not elected to the house, the votes
they collected are not wasted. In this case they help candidate #13
get his seat. This is in sharp contrast with the present system,
where a vote for a not winning candidate is always wasted. However,
the 4503 left excess are going to one of the three parties that
have a higher number of excess votes. Nothing is perfect in
life.
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