An election method to replace MMP

[New Democracy]

Greetings Election Methods list,

     Mixed Member Proportional Representation(MMP) is an improvement - but,
MMP has the flaw of cross party voting which can result in more members
being elected than seats to be filled. One solution is to allow these extra
members to be seated. The extra members are called "overhang". I have come
up with a better solution - I have devised a new method.

     This is an election plan to elect a lawmaking body by a mix of
individual candidates and political parties. This plan can be used for an
election held in a single area or for an election in which the area is
divided into districts. The point of the design of this method is to have a
method in which the voters only have one vote, but can vote for either the
candidates or the parties or both - and also a method in which the
candidates are not forced to decide between running as an individual
candidate or on a party list. They can do both in this design. First they
all run as individual candidates in a Choice Voting(STV) election and then
the non-elected ones go onto a party list. The party lists are then put
into a second Choice Voting cycle.

     This election method uses two cycles of Choice Voting. One cycle
elects candidates that reach a full share(quota) - which is total votes
divided by number of seats. The first cycle also determines the order of
the non-elected candidates on party lists. The party lists are used in the
second cycle to convert the lists of ranked parties into lists of ranked
party candidates - which are used in the second cycle of Choice Voting to
elect the balance of the members.

     The voters are allowed to rank candidates - the voters are also
allowed to rank parties. The voters that rank both candidates and parties
will have their candidate choices read first. This system allows the voter
to vote for only a party but the voter that do vote for candidates will be
deciding the order of the candidates on the party lists.

     All candidates will run as individual candidates in the first cycle of
Choice Voting. The first cycle has the rule that any surplus votes of
political parties are not to be transferred and no political party is to be
dropped. The first cycle would only transfer the surplus votes of
candidates and drop only candidates.

     After the transfer of all surplus candidate votes, the lowest
candidates are dropped one by one until only candidates with a full share
of votes are remaining. These candidates are elected but not all seats are
filled yet. We now go into the second cycle.

     In the second cycle we will not be dealing with the candidates that
were elected in the first cycle, nor will we be dealing with the votes that
elected those candidates. The data from the first cycle that we will be
working with is the remaining vote sums for each ranked list of the
political parties.

     We replace each of the political parties in all the lists of party
rankings with a list of candidates of the same party. Only the non-elected
candidates from the first cycle of Choice Voting would make up these party
lists. The order of the candidates on each party list is to be determined
by the highest number of votes they attained when they were dropped in the
first cycle. Non-elected independent candidates would have an independent
list.

     After we have replaced all political parties with their list of party
candidates, we still have the same vote sums but now they are labeled with
a list of ranked candidates. This collection of vote sums is now worked as
a Choice Voting election using the same share value as was used in the
first cycle. The balance of the members will be elected - provided each has
a majority of a share value.

     In this system the voter is allowed to rank both candidates and
parties but the voter only has one vote and it is mathematically impossible
for that whole vote to be cloned and end up on two candidates - which can
happen in MMP elections because of cross party voting. In this method, if
the whole vote is used to elect a candidate in the first cycle then a clone
of that vote cannot appear in the second cycle.

     An option that the math of this system will accept: In the second
cycle I would like to see the addition of recommended lists provided by
civic minded groups. These lists would contain candidates that were already
running as independents or under a party banner. This would mean that some
candidates would appear on more than one list in the second cycle. The math
of this method can handle that.

     The affect of this recommended list on the election will be greater
than appears. One: Many candidates on the recommended list will be elected
already in the first cycle. Two: In the second cycle, some candidates on
the recommended list will be elected by their own political parties.
Therefore the recommended list may only need to help elect a few of the
candidates on its list. As if the list was putting the icing on the cake.

     More and more people are coming to realize that if we are to have a
good functioning govenment we must include everyone. The current policy of
having one party be a ruling class is not acceptable. We should seek the
best members from all parties. This is why we need proportional
representation and it follows that civic minded groups should be encouraged
to provide recommended proportional lists of the best candidates - lists
that cross all party lines - and these lists should be on the ballot.

What follows is a list of additions to the Plan for when the election area
is divided into districts

  * This plan allows for the people to decide the size of their
    districts - large or small.

  * Apportionment can be done casually and reapportionment is not
    necessary. This plan will automatically adjust apportionment
    each election for the same election.

  * Both cycles and all the districts are to use the same Share
    Value - Total Area Votes divided by Total Election Seats.

  * The first cycle results, of the political parties and other lists,
    for all the districts are added together and the second cycle is
    worked the same as the second cycle of a single area election.

Regards,
Don


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