[EM] Re: plurality, FPTP and runoff voting

[Paul Kislanko]

Sigh. FPTP was introduced just so we'd have another synonym for "Plurality".

Its etymology is likely due to media types harping on polls all the way the
up the election over time. "A is ahead by a neck with B coming up hard on
the outside with a week to go" as an analogy to "coming into the last turn"
in a "horse race."

The "post" in FPTP" is the same as the "finish line" in a sprint, marathon,
diathlon, triathlon, etc. 

This is one of the reasons I don't care too much for the terminology that
keeps getting introduced. "FPTP = Plurality" is consistent, but not
accurate. Plurality means the candidate with the most votes wins. From the
standpoint of the voters, all voters cast their votes at the same time (or
at least the counting method should assume that).

"FPTP" implies movement, as in "the candidate is ahead at this point in
time". But if there's only one election, there's no one "first" past the
post, there is only one winner who is past the post. 

FPTP should be abolished from the lexicon if there's not a SPTP, TPTP, etc.
If it's "Plurality" call it Plurality and stop confusing the issue by making
up 4-character combinations that make no sense.

In the "race" for Election Method systems we note that Plurality is
First-Past-the-Post since it is what most of us have to put up with.


-----Original Message-----
From: election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com
[mailto:election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com] On Behalf Of
James Gilmour
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 5:27 PM
To: election-methods at electorama.com
Subject: RE: [EM] Re: plurality, FPTP and runoff voting

Rob Brown  > Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 6:40 PM
> BTW, I never understood where the term "first past the post" 
> comes from.  It  doesn't seem very descriptive. 
> Anyone have any insight into this?

You have obviously never seen a horse race!  "First past the post" (the
winning post!) is a perfect
description of a single-member district election in which each voter marks
only one "X" and the
candidate with the greatest number of Xs is declared the "winner" (ie
elected).  It doesn't matter
how many or how few votes are cast in total (how fast or how slow the race
is run), the candidate
with the greatest number (first to reach the post) is the winner.  It
doesn't matter that my team
took second, third, fourth and fifth places in the race, if your team member
was the first to reach
the winning post, your runner was the winner and there is only one "winner".
That happened time and
again in the recent Olympic Games  -  it was all about "winning", ie being
first over the line =
first past the post.

I don't know who coined the phrase or when it was first used with reference
to British elections.  I
cannot find a relevant historical reference in any of the on-line
dictionaries and I don't have an
Athens (university) password to access the on-line version of the Oxford
English Dictionary.

James

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