[EM] Re: alternate proportional method

[Olli Salmi]

At 16:39 +0100 28.7.2003, James Gilmour wrote:
>Olli wrote:
>>  In the last parliamentary election their were two Social Democratic
>>  candidates from Uusikaupunki, where my Internet Service Provider is.
>>  Neither was elected but their votes combined would have elected an
>>  MP.
>
>Why did their combined votes not secure their party one seat, which 
>would then have been allocated
>to whichever of the two got the greater number of personal votes?

Sorry, I didn't say it clearly. The party got a seat but the town didn't.

>  > STV would have been better. Even with the Swiss system the
>>  townspeople wouldn't have wasted their vote.
>
>The only disadvantage of the Swiss system is that surpluses and 
>exclusions are not transferable
>under the voter's control.  Transferability is assumed to be within 
>the parties' lists.

Yes, that's the price we pay for the simplicity. You have to tabulate 
the votes on forms, so it's not so simple as closed list or our open 
list method, but you don't have to transfer the votes so you can 
count them at the polling stations.

Olli Salmi