Electoral Systems Exercise
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BALLOTS FOR DIFFERENT SYSTEMS
Key concept: A country's electoral system can have a distinctive influence on the makeup of its legislature, particularly in terms of proportionality. It also affects how responsible legislators/ members of parliament are to their constituencies.
Objective: This exercise is designed to help students better understand the differences in outcomes of various electoral structures.
Process:
1. Students were given three ballots, representing different electoral systems: Single Member Plurality District, Closed List (Party List), and Mixed. The parties were listed in the same order on each ballot, with an attempt to maintain as much continuity as possible.
2. Students were told to cast their votes on each ballot.
3. Ballots were collected and tallied. The results were posted on the board in each of the three categories.
4. A runoff ballot was passed out and a fourth category (Majority) was added to the board.
5. The students were told that they comprised one district, and to pretend as if the outcome of their district were replicated across 100 districts in the imaginary country.
Outcome: In the SMPD ballot, the winning candidate only won 36% of the vote (but 100% of the seats, if multiplied out to 100 districts). For the majority system, the proportion was slightly better after the runoff, with the winner gaining 60% (but still 100% of the seats, if multiplied out). With the Closed List ballot, the proportion of seats was approximately equal to the proportion of votes, but there was no legislator directly accountable to the district. The mixed system provided both proportionality and accountability.