People Empowering Politics

First Past the Post

First Past the Post (FPP) is a simple solid system. The electorate cross one candidate and the one with the most votes wins. Each elect also represents a much smaller constituency compared to PR. The weakness of this system is safe seats and gerrymandering.

A candidate can win with the largest minority of votes, which normally creates a two party system, one socialist and the other conservative. A four party system would be better as you can vote for one side of the political spectrum and how moderate or radical you want it to be.

Which leads to lack of voter choice because you could either waste your vote on a smaller party or one of the main ones you dont fully agree with. This all increases the chances of safe seats where one party can more easily win their constituency.

Gerrymandering is where the constituency is formed in such an unnatural way that it does not correspond to the local voters fixed community. This is done because the controlling party or directly elected leader, will change the boundaries so that the oppositions electorate are the minority in more constituencies.

This can be avoided with an independent boundary commission which will look at the voter populations and current boundaries and they do not know their past voting habits. A percentage discrepancy is allowed between the smallest and largest constituency.

You can have multiple past the post by combining two or more constituencies together. The winning threshold is total votes divided by seats, if there are any remaining seats available then they are won with spare votes. The only problem is you lose the individual constituency link per elect.

The party list can be closed, where the party decides the priority of candidates. An Open list is where the electorate preference those candidates. Semi open is where the party decides beforehand if you just want to vote for the party, but you can still preference if you want to.

Alterative Vote

The alternative Vote (AV) is where the electorate preference their candidate choices, with the least supported being eliminated. This gives voters more of a choice when selecting candidates and the winner must achieve an actual majority.

Some people may feel its unfair for some votes to be counted more often than others, especially if you can max preference with a broad set of candidates. For closed elections you could limit candidates to four and have max preferences. For open elections you could minimalize preferences to two but with greater candidate selection.

D Hondt Method

The D Hondt Method (DHM) is a formula that divides the party vote share every time they win a candidate. The calculation is original party votes / (seats won +1 = ) = remaining votes.

When Party A wins their 2* seat in round four you calculate the remaining votes by their original vote. So 100,000 votes / (seats won 2 + 1 =3) = 33,333.

Sometimes smaller parties form coalitions to combine their votes and potentially win more seats. Their combined vote share is split by their partys vote shares to win seats. If they win four seats and each partys percentage share was A/50pc, B/30pc and C/20pc, then seat allocation would be A2, B1 and C1.

Sometimes a party needs to reach a percentage threshold like 5pc or enough to win a seat. Otherwise they are eliminated and this helps weed out smaller extreme parties.

A coalition may need to reach a higher threshold like 7pc or each additional party adds 5pc with a cap of 15pc, even if four or more parties are added.

Mixed Members Proportional

Mixed Members Proportional (MMP) is where the FPP and DHM elects are equal in number. If DHM elects are less in number than FPP its called Additional Members. If the first voting method doesnt affect the second, its called Parallel Voting. Voters have two ballot papers for each type, with party votes being separate from each election.

Before the first round of DHM elections, the FPP seats already won divide the party’s DHM votes first. If Party A won two FPP seats and their DHM vote is 100,000. Then its 100,000 / (seats won 2 +1 =3) =33,333. So 33,333 is their new starting point in round one in DHM. The downside is FPP elects will have to represent a constituency twice the size, or you double the amount of DHM elects. AV could be used in both stages.

Parties can do something sneaky and create decoy lists using satellite parties, which are working for the main party. Their voters will support their satellite party in the second round, meaning the main parties votes are not split in DHM elections from first round gains. To solve this voters only get one vote, meaning their single vote is used twice for local elections and for the larger constituency. Votes used to win seats are not counted unless they are surplus, which would be calculated by votes / total seats = winning threshold.

Single Transferable Vote

Single Transferable Vote (STV) is where the electorate can preference candidates across party lines. Your first preference might be candidate One of Party A, while your second preference is candidate Two of Party B.

Additional votes above the winning threshold are passed on, to the voters next preference as a percentage.

There are two main methods to calculate the winning threshold, the Hare and Droop quotas. The Hare is total votes / seats available = threshold. The Droop is total votes / seats available plus one, plus one vote = threshold.

STV maximises voter contributions in winning candidates, by minimising wasted votes on losing choices. There are strong draw backs to this system.

If a party fields too many candidates they could all be lost in the first round, even if the party has enough overall votes to win seats. If the electorate spread their first preferences on multiple candidates within the same party, but their second preferences are for other party and their candidates.

As you can see Party A should have gained two seats by vote share. This is also why constituencies are normally ranged between 3-5 seats and the droop quota is used, as the lower threshold favours larger parties. This could be resolved if your first vote for the party and preference their candidate choices, with only surplus party votes going to other parties.

The other major drawback is you require computers to work out the complicated percentage formula, of additional votes to other candidates. Theres no individual constituency link per elect.

Proportional Past the Post

Proportional Past the Post (PPP) will have one large constituency (LC), which will house their small constituencies (SC) for individual elects. The electorate will vote in their local SC first and their results will be sent to their LC.

There are two voting methods we could use, multiple past the post and the D Hondt method. Party candidate rankings will be decided by how many votes they won. This means your vote has a dual purpose, in generally supporting your party and your local candidate.

If two or more parties have candidates that are "ranked qualified" in the same SC, then the candidate with the highest vote share wins. If for some reason no qualified candidate is available, then the highest local vote share elects, which might be from a losing party.

Multiple past the post would be the simplest option, but some might feel its unfair for parties to win elects in the second round with much smaller vote shares. The D Hondt method would be fair the larger parties in this regard.

You could use minimal AV with two preferences. Parties will be put into three categories, winning, undecided, and losing. Winning parties are ones with at least one seat and undecided are mathematically able. Losing parties have no mathematical chance and are eliminated.

You would still use multiple past the post or the D Hondt method to allocate seats. Candidate rankings can either use first round votes or the second round can also contribute. In this case ballot papers would have local identification.

Ideally this system would produce four main parties, two moderate and two radical for the socialist left and conservative right. This means if a coalition government is formed the senior and junior partners are already established. Also these four main parties will have the electoral depth to cooperate, make necessary changes and to reinvent ones party. As they can rely on multiple sets of supporters, within their electoral base.

Constituencies

There will be six levels of constituency, ward, council, province, region, state and union. The higher level territory will allocate "voting value percentages", to their level below and will only include the voting population.

Local constituencies within the same province can't be 50pc more voter populated, compared to their smallest constituency. They should try to stay within the same boundaries as local government, even if that means having multiple constituencies within. Small local authorities can combine with another and only as a last result should portions of one authority be separated.