[EM] Maintenance Elections

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

Raph Frank wrote:
> Another option is to use the original ballots.  In Australia, for
> their PR-STV seats, the ballots are reexamined after a vacancy and the
> results calculated a second time.  However, no candidate who is still
> sitting in the parliament can be eliminated (i.e. you can't lose your
> seat because someone else resigns).   This has some potential problems
> in the maths, but it should ensure that a candidate similar to the
> outgoing member is elected, while allowing the voters' choice to
> determine the replacement.
> 
> I think that is a good idea, and it encourages a party to run extra
> candidates so that they have 'spares' to fill vacancies.  This can
> help reduce the ability of parties to perform vote management.

Schulze's STV proposal uses a proportional completion for this purpose. 
As far as I understand, the proportional completion is an extension of 
the PR result, for more seats than really exist. If a party member 
quits/dies/etc, he's replaced by the highest-ranked unelected party 
member on that proportional completion ordering. I'm not sure how this 
works with independents; perhaps they should just appoint a replacement 
ahead of time (that is, as a precaution, like with your VP or EU 
Parliament examples). The risk may be too low for it to be worth the 
bother, in which case that seat could simply be empty.

For list PR, it would be even simpler. The next candidate on the list 
gets the seat. I don't think this should be used if the representative 
decides to vote against the party, but just if he leaves, since party 
list PR grants enough power to the parties as it is.