Reapportioning seats in multi seat districts

[New Democracy]

Dear list members,

     In June of last year I posted to this list a letter on the
reapportionment of seat in multi seat districts.

     At that time I indicated that when we divide the vote count of each
district by the statewide quota we will get the number of seats per
district - after we rounded off to the nearest whole number.

     I now realize that the rounding off can give us more or less total
statewide seats than we are seeking. I now have new math in which I handle
the remainders in a different way and not merely round them off. Below is
the corrected text:

Don
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Reapportion the Number of Seats in Multi Districts each Election

There are some good reasons to have only one district for an entire
lawmaking body - each voter is free to join up with all the other voters
that have the same concerns, the candidates can collect support from the
entire area, and  there will be no need for reapportionment. But a large
number of candidates on the ballot may cause the people to feel that the
ballot is unwieldy. The people might divide the area into two or more
districts.

If and when there are two or more multi seat districts, apportionment and
reapportionment will be part of the election system. The apportionment of
these districts is not to be fixed. The number of representatives per
district should not to be based on population but instead it should be
based on the number of votes cast in each election and for the same
election. The exact number of seats per district is to be based on the
votes cast in a district in proportion to the combined votes of all
districts.

Let us assume as an example that some state elects one hundred members to
its State House from five districts using Preference Voting. These five
districts are to be reapportioned each election - for the same election -
after each election - based on the votes cast in said election.

It would work as follows: We first calculate a quota for the entire state.
We divide one hundred into the total votes cast statewide for the election
of members to the State House. This statewide quota would then be divided
into the votes cast in each district. This will give us the number of seats
per district in the form of a whole number plus a remainder. The remainders
for all the districts are added together. We will get a whole number - or
very close to a whole number. This number, the sum of the remainders, is
the number of additional members that are to be added one by one to the
number of members of the districts with the highest remainders - do you
understand what I just wrote? Example please:

     District    Seats        Remainder      Members      Final Count
       One       18.675         .675           18     +1      19
       Two       20.705         .705           20     +1      21
       Three     20.710         .710           20     +1      21
       Four      20.270         .270           20             20
       Five      19.640         .640           19             19
               --------        -----          ---            ---
                100            3.000           97            100

The sum of the remainders is equal to three. Therefore one member is added
to each of the three districts that have the largest remainders. This is
done so that we will end up with the same total of one hundred members for
the entire state. The sum total of seats for the five districts would be
fixed at one hundred seats - but the number of seats per district would not
be fixed. Some districts may end up with more than twenty seats - some with
less than twenty.

We now have the final count of seats for each district. At this point each
district shall compute a new quota for their district based on their vote
count and their final number of seats. A new quota is needed for each
district. While the number of votes per seat in each district should be
close to the state wide quota, there will be differences. These new quotas
for each district are to be used when we work the Preference Voting method
for each district.

The final results of all this is that all one hundred members will be
elected by the same approximate number of votes - this gives each voter the
same representation as voters in the other districts.

The number of seats in one district can be influenced by a number of
reasons. Some reasons are as follows: Any increase or decrease of
population in any district since the last election - higher or lower voter
turn out in any district - maybe some part of the people were denied the
right to vote in a district. Any change in the vote count in any district
will be reflected in your district.

There are a number of benefits from having two or more districts. ONE: The
ballot would be shorter - but the candidate you want may not be on your
ballot. TWO: The people would have an increased inducement to vote - they
would want to get their just share of the representation for their district
- a single statewide district would not have this inducement - nor do
current single seat districts. THREE: If some people are denied the right
to vote, the districts involved would lose that percentage of
representation. It is only fitting that they lose these seats until we can
get this evil corrected. Changes and conditions in a district should be
reflected in the number of seats alloted to a district.

Donald Eric Davison of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald

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