Electoral Systems

ELECTORAL SYSTEMS & ELECTORAL REFORM 

There are many different ways of conducting elections and translating the votes cast by the electorate into seats in the legislature. For a brief overview of the different systems, visit  the Electoral Reform Society and Wikipedia's section on voting systems.

In 2003, the government of British Columbia created a Citizens' Assembly (archived site), which met in 2004 to consider whether to change the electoral system used for provincial elections in BC. The recommendations from the Assembly will be put to the voters in a referendum to coincide with the general election scheduled for May 2005.

Canada, Britain, and the U.S. all use the Single Member Plurality system, sometimes called "first-past-the-post." In this system there is one representative in the legislature for each riding, and that person only has to win one vote more than any other candidate in that riding. When the results are added up across a province or the whole country, there are usually significant discrepancies between the share of votes won by the political parties and their share of seats in the legislature. 

You can see a graph that shows the difference between vote and seat share in the last three federal elections in Canada. 

A number of groups and individuals are campaigning for the reform of the electoral system in Canada, Britain, and the U.S. All advocate moving to some form of proportional representation. 

The Center for Voting and Democracy - a U.S. electoral reform group 

Charter88 - a group campaigning for broad democratic reform in the U.K. Consult their Guide to Voting Systems for an explanation of different electoral systems. 

Electoral Reform Society - campaigning for reform in the U.K. since 1884 

Proportional Representation Library is run by Douglas J. Amy. This site contains links to a number of full-text articles on electoral reform. One useful resource is his paper, "What is Proportional Representation and Why Do We Need This Reform?" 

One problem with single member plurality systems is that there can be significant under-representation of social groups among those who win seats in the legislature. Some argue that proportional representation would allow a more diverse representation.

Some have proposed quotas or reserved seats in parliaments as one solution for under-representation. However, the Proportional Representation Society of Australia makes a case against quotas. 

Australia uses a form of Single Member Majority in elections for its lower house, the House of Representatives, through the "alternative vote" system. A different system is used for elections to the Senate. David Moss provides a description of the Australian electoral systems. 

The Single Transferable Vote system is used in Ireland, Malta, and some Australian state elections. Voters mark their ballots preferentially, and several members are declared elected for each riding after they have reached a certain quota of the counted votes. There are several ways of organizing STV systems. An explanation of the Hare-Clark system is provided by the Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission; the Tasmanian Electoral Office also offers its own explanation of the Hare-Clark Electoral System. It's complicated, so you may want to read both! 

Proportional representation (PR) electoral systems involve multi-member constituencies, which may sometimes encompass a local region and in other systems may extend across a whole province or even nationwide. The most direct form of PR is through the list system. You can read about the list system in How Proportional Representation Elections Work by Douglas Amy. There are some very complicated procedures that can be used to apportion the seats among the various parties' lists. 

Several countries, such as Italy, Japan, Russia, and New Zealand, have adopted a Mixed Member Proportional electoral system, pioneered by Germany. In mixed systems, a portion of the legislature's seats are filled through single member plurality elections, while the rest are filled from party lists according to each party's share of the vote. Note that each country has adopted a different approach to the distribution of the party list seats. 

An informative description of the New Zealand MMP electoral system is provided by the New Zealand government. The sample NZ ballot is useful to look at in order to understand the two votes each elector now has. In 2001, the New Zealand Parliament released a report on the country's experience with the MMP system.

New Zealand also has several seats set aside to be elected by members of their Aboriginal population, the Maori. Currently there are five Maori seats in Parliament. Voters of Maori descent can choose to register on either the general or Maori election lists. 

ELECTION RESULTS

CNN's Election Watch provides summary results of recent national elections around the world. Wikipedia's politics portal includes a comprehensive set of election results from around the world.

Australia's Electoral Commission provides the results of the 2004 federal election.

Elections Canada publishes official results of past federal elections and Wikipedia has a section on Canadian elections as well.

The 2002 French election results are available at CNN.

The results of recent Israeli elections are available from the Knesset. 

Germany's most recent parliamentary elections were held in 2005, and resulted in the election of the country's first woman Chancellor, Angela Merkel. 

The 2000 Mexican presidential elections produced important results, bringing the end to 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. 

Russia's most recent presidential and parliamentary election results are posted on the Internet. 

Taiwan's presidential elections in 2000 marked the end of 41 years of rule by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). 

Visit the BBC for the 2005 British general election results. You can also review the results of the General Elections, 1945-97. 

Several resources are available on the Internet to examine the results of past elections in the United States: 

• CNN provides archived coverage of the 2004 Presidential and congressional elections; you can also visit their archives for the 2000 presidential and congressional elections and 2002 congressional elections. 
• Elections USA has the election results from every state (state and presidential elections) since at least 1992 (depending on state). 
• The Presidential Elections Statistics site provides graphs with the results of every presidential election from 1789 to the present. 
• You can look up the results of state-level elections and referendums in the US, as well as state efforts at redistricting and reapportionment. 
• Yahoo! News Full Coverage-US Elections

RECALL ELECTIONS 

The province of British Columbia in Canada and eighteen states in the USA provide for the recall of elected officials. Essentially, if enough voters' signatures are gathered, an election is called and the incumbent can either simply resign or run again in the election.

• Elections BC has information on recall in BC
• National Conference of State Legislatures provides material on recall in the US.

Perhaps the most instance of recall occurred with the recall election for the California Governor in 2003.  Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger ran in this election for the Republicans.

GENERAL SITES WITH ELECTION RESOURCES 

Elections and Electoral Reform by David Barnsdale 

Elections and Electoral Systems by Country from Keele University 

International Foundation for Election Systems

Psephos Election Archive, by Adam Carr

The Lijphart Archive

Wikipedia's Election Section and election results