[EM] Districts (was: Proportionality in perspective)

[LAYTON Craig]

Bart wrote:

>What about list-based and MMP systems?  They seem to make things more
>difficult if the voter is not aligned or not content to accept a party
>slate.

The New Zealand system (which I suspect is slightly better than the German
MMP system) actually accounts for this in its calculations of awarding
additional seats.  I'm not sure what the exact rules are, but I think that
independant candidates winning in electorates are taken out of the equation,
so that when the Labour Party gets 20% of votes on the party list ballot
(there are two separate ballots), their additional seats are allocated so
that they get 20% of the seats held by parties on the party list ballot, not
20% of the total number of seats in parliament.  This means that the number
of seats in parliament might vary slightly, but this is sometime unevoidable
under MMP systems, for instance, where a party gets more electorate seats
than is proportional to their national support, even when all the additional
seats have been allocated.