Games - Limited Voting

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	Games - Limited Voting

Limited voting is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes absolutely. In the special case in which the voter may vote for only one candidate and there are two or more posts, this system is called the single non-transferable vote.

=Practice and Issues= Although it frequently enables minority groupings to gain representation - unlike first past the post or bloc voting systems - it is not guaranteed to do this, since the effectiveness of a sectional vote may be altered depending on the number of candidates fielded.

For example, the town of Voterville elects three representatives to the local legislature. In the town, 54% of electors support the Blue Party while 46% support the Red Party. Assuming an even distribution of suport across the town, the Blue Party would win all three seats with either bloc voting or first past the post. With limited voting the Red Party would usually win one seat.

This is, however, complicated by the fact that it is possible for the Blue Party to overreach itself and win only one of the available seats. Since they have nearly 60% of the vote, they may be tempted to try and win all three seats for themselves. To do this, they need only to field three candidates. The Red Party, aware of the relative weakness chose only to contest two and thus to concentrate their vote.

Assuming 100,000 electors in the town, the results would thus be:

By fielding three candidates the Blue Party hopelessly split their vote, despite being the clear majority in the town.

As can be seen from this example, limited voting is not a proportional electoral system.

=History and Use=

This system was used for a between 1867 and 1885 in the United Kingdom for some Parliamentary constituencies.

It was also used in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century.

The limited vote has been used since the restoration of democracy to elect senators from the Spanish mainland. In the United States, it is used to elect most municipal offices in Connecticut, many in Pennsylvania, and some in other states.

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