chapter 12

Flashcards related to elections and electoral systems

Electoral System

A set of laws that regulate electoral competition between candidates or parties or both.

Electoral Integrity

The extent to which the conduct of elections meets international standards and global norms concerning ‘good’ elections.

Electoral Malpractice

Violations of electoral integrity.

Election Monitoring

A strategy to identify election fraud.

Election Forensics

A strategy to identify election fraud.

Electoral Formula

Determines how votes are translated into seats.

Majoritarian Electoral System

A system in which the candidates or parties that receive the most votes wins.

Single-Member District Plurality system (SMDP)

A system in which individuals cast a single vote for a candidate in a single-member district; the candidate with the most votes wins.

Single Nontransferable Vote (SNTV)

Voters cast a single candidate-centered vote in a multimember district and The candidates with the highest number of votes are elected.

Alternative Vote (AV)

A candidate-centered preference voting system used in single-member districts where voters rank order the candidates.

Majority-Runoff Two-Round System

Voters cast a single candidate-centered vote in a single-member district. Any candidate who obtains an absolute majority in the first round of elections is elected and If no one obtains an absolute majority, then the top two vote winners go on to compete in a runoff election in the second round.

Proportional representation (PR)

A quota- or divisor-based electoral system employed in multimember districts. The rationale behind PR systems is to produce a proportional translation of votes into seats.

List PR system

Each party presents a list of candidates to voters in each multimember district. Parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the votes, and These seats are then allocated among the candidates on their list.

Quota

The ‘price’ in terms of votes that a party must ‘pay’ to guarantee themselves a seat in a particular electoral district.

Divisor System

A system that divides the total number of votes won by each party in a district by a series of numbers (divisors) to obtain quotients and District seats are then allocated according to which parties have the highest quotients.

District magnitude

The number of representatives elected in a district.

Electoral threshold

The minimum level of support a party needs to obtain representation.

Closed party list

The order of candidates elected is determined by the party itself, and voters aren’t able to express a preference for a particular candidate.

Open party list

Voters can indicate not just their preferred party, but also their favored candidate within that party.

Free party list

Voters have multiple votes they can allocate either within a single party list or across different party lists.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

Candidate-centered preferential voting system used in multimember districts.

Mixed electoral system

Voters elect representatives through two different systems, one majoritarian and one proportional.

Electoral tier

A level at which votes are translated into seats.

Independent mixed electoral system

The majoritarian and proportional components of the electoral system are implemented independently of one another.

Dependent mixed electoral system

The application of the proportional formula is dependent on the distribution of seats or votes produced by the majoritarian formula.