[EM] Vermont's Two Member Districts
David Catchpole
s349436 at student.uq.edu.au
Sun May 16 19:17:26 PDT 1999
Am I right in assuming that the two-member districts are in areas with
reasonably high votes for the parties that prior to the election were
non-majority parties?
On Sat, 15 May 1999, Donald E Davison wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> In April I asked the question: "What is the smallest change that will
> yield the most improvement in an election method - for the size of the
> change?"
> When I suggested that a two member district in place of the Single
> Seat District would yield the most improvement for the size of this small
> change, I did not know that two member districts were in use somewhere. I
> have been informed by Terry Bouricius of Vermont that his state uses two
> member districts in the election of its House.
>
> Vermont not only uses two member districts, but it uses a mix of one
> and two member districts in the same election, which I consider a stroke of
> good luck, because now we can compare one and two member districts, in the
> same state, in the same election using the same issues. I fail to see how
> we could get a better arrangement to compare anything.
>
> I divided the districts into two sets, 67 Single Seat districts vs 41
> Two Member districts. I had said that two member districts would give
> better proportional representation for any two major parties. This turns
> out to be the case.
> In the Single Seat district set, there is a difference of about twelve
> percent between major party votes and major party members elected, while
> the Two Member set only has a difference of about one percent.
>
> S I N G L E S E A T D I S T R I C T S
>
> Party Votes Percent Members elected Percent + or -
> --------- --------- ------- --------------- ------- --------
> Democrat 42,668 45.2 % 35 57.4 % + 12.2 %
> Republican 48,731 52.7 % 25 41.0 % - 11.7 %
> Progressive 561 0.6 % 1 1.6 % + 1.0 %
> Libertarian 33 0.0 %
> Independent 1,534 1.6 % 0 0 - 1.6 %
> Write In 817 0.9 % 0 0 - 0.9 %
> ------- -----
> 94,344 61
>
> T W O M E M B E R D I S T R I C T S (voters have two votes)
>
> Party Votes Percent Members elected Percent + or -
> --------- --------- ------- --------------- ------- --------
> Democrat 83,460 51.8 % 36 51.4 % - 0.4 %
> Republican 69,358 43.1 % 31 44.3 % + 1.2 %
> Progressive 3,612 2.2 % 3 4.3 % + 2.1 %
> Libertarian 2,241 1.4 % 0 0 - 1.4 %
> Independents 1,404 0.9 % 0 0 - 0.9 %
> Grass Roots 142 0.1 % 0 0 - 0.1 %
> Write In 795 0.5 % 0 0 - 0.5 %
> ------- ---
> 161,012 70
>
> Note: I did not include the data of candidates that were nominated by two
> parties.
>
> In this real election in the real world, the two member districts are
> clearly better than single seat districts in regard to the proportional
> representation of the two major parties.
>
>
> E L E C T E D M E M B E R S B Y G E N D E R
>
> Single seat districts Two Member districts
> ----------------------- ----------------------
> Male 49 73.1 % Male 54 65.8 %
>
> Female 18 26.9 % Female 28 34.1 %
>
> The percent of females elected has also improved.
> I would say that Two Member districts are better than Single Seat Districts.
> But I will also say there are better changes than merely forming Two
> Member districts.
>
> If anyone would like the data of this 1998 Vermont election, ask and I
> will send it to you in two eMail letters.
>
> Or, you can collect the data yourself on the following web site:
>
> http:www.sec.state.vt.us/
>
> You will need to go through a series of links to get to the data.
>
> First click onto "Elections" (not the elections link that is in the
> left hand window. Use the election link that is a few inches down in the
> main window. These two election links go to different locations on the
> site. Do not ask me why.)
>
> Next Link is: "Searchable Database of Candidates for 1998 General Election."
>
> Next Link is: "Summary of Results"
>
> Next Link is: "Election Home Page"
>
> Next Link is: "Result of Nov 3 1998 General Election"
>
> Next Link is: "State House Races, Unofficial Results by Polling Place"
>
> At this location you will find a window with all the districts and
> their polling places.
> The districts are listed in capital letters and contain the results for
> the entire district. There is no need to check each polling place, but you
> will need to access each district, because each district has its own link.
> Have fun.
>
> Regards,
> Donald
>
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>
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> | "Democracy is a beautiful thing, |
> | except that part about letting just any old yokel vote." |
> | - Age 10 |
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