[EM] List PR with multiple votes per person?

[Olli Salmi]

I understand that in Switzerland different interest groups publish 
lists of candidates they find suitable so they probably think it's 
advantageous.

In this country I haven't noticed anything like this. My 
understanding is that with our SNTV within the party list a Droop 
quota of voters of a party is certain to get a seat, and often the 
number is smaller, so different views within the party get a voice, 
although not necessarily as a spectrum. It's a question of 
concentrating your votes.

The higher the number of votes that a voter has, the higher the 
threshold of exclusion.

Here's something about the threshold in limited voting.

"Limited Voting

Limited voting is similar to traditional at-large elections, except 
voters must cast fewer votes than the number of seats. The greater 
the difference between the number of seats and the number of votes, 
the greater the opportunities for fair representation of those in the 
minority. The "threshold of exclusion" in limited voting is the 
number of votes divided by the number of votes plus the number of 
seats. For example, in a race to elect five candidates in which 
voters had two votes, any cohesive group of voters comprising two 
sevenths (28.6 percent) of the electorate would be guaranteed to win 
one seat."
http://www.southerncouncil.org/helpnet/articles/alternative2.html

With one vote the threshold equals the Droop quota.

Olli Salmi

At 05:38 +0200 8.8.2003, Kevin Venzke wrote:
>Has anyone ever thought of this?  Or does anyone think it could make 
>a difference?
>
>I was thinking about Alex's thoughts on a one-dimensional spectrum 
>possibly being
>inevitable, and I had the thought that list PR forces each person to 
>settle on a
>selection.  But if a voter had 5 votes, let's say, maybe an animal 
>rights party
>could get a seat (for instance).
>
>I don't think this would be as effective in a parliamentary setting 
>(i.e., where
>a majority gets to form the government).
>
>I've occasionally tried to design methods that try to identify a spectrum and
>pick the candidate who seems to fit on it the least, but the results 
>are either
>comparable to Condorcet (you get a centrist), or they're amusingly 
>undemocratic.