Voting Systems & Proportion

A S 12.1.1

Is Democracy Fair?
We vote to select Presidents, Councils, Oscar Winners, World Cup venues for Soccer and even to decide where to go on holiday etc. But, there are many ways to mathematically count votes in any election. The outcome of an election can change, depending on the voting system and the election methods chosen. Lets look at some commonly used systems.

Borda Count Method

Here you rank (with a number) each candidate according to your preference for the President etc. Points are then allocated to each position. The person with the highest no. of points wins the election and is the President. BALLOT Ms Jones voted as follows. Name Rank If the 1st ranked gets 2 William 3 points. How many points do each get? Henry 1 If there are n candidates George 2 Henry 2; George 1 then and William - 0 1st place = n -1 points,
n d

No. of voters Place 130 120 100 150

The Mayor of Smallville is chosen according to the Borda Method. 500 registered voters cast their ballots for Ester, Mvuyo, Nisha and Thabo. The results are summarised below.

1 E T T N Who had no 1st 2 M M M M place votes? Mvuyo 3 N N E E 4 T E N T s t % = 220 /500 x 100 What % of 1 place votes did Thabo receive? = 44%

Who received the popular vote? (most 1st places) Thabo

No. of voters Use the Borda method Place 130 120 100 150 to find out who won the election. 1 E T T N Allocate 4 points for 2 M M M M s t n d 1 place, 3 for 2 etc. 3 N N E E 4 T E N T

Ester = 130x4 + 120x1 + 250x2 = 1140 * Mvuyo = 500 x 3 = 1500 Nisha = 150x4 + 250x2+ 100x1 = 1200 Mvuyo 220x4 + 280x1 = the Mayor. Thabo =wins and becomes 1160

Proportional Representation
Here you vote for one political party. The Party then decides who to send to Parliament. The number of seats each Party gets is in the same proportion as the proportion of votes they receive. The Party with the most seats chooses the President.

e.g. Council consists of 200 members. If a party gets 40% of the votes, how many members will represent them? Representation =
4 0

/100 x 200 = 80 members

Smallville use proportional representation for their voting system. Four parties contest the elections. The table shows the no. of votes each Party Party Votes % votes received. Complete the table. 23,8 Durban 119 Which Party won 28 the election and 35,2 gets to choose Frere 140 13 the Mayor? Grey 176 Grey
Milner 65 Will this Party form a majority 500 100% Total in the

Council? Explain. No only have 35,2 % of votes.

15 members must be elected for the Smallville Council. Calculate the no. of seats for each party. Party Votes No. Milner = 65 /500 x 15 seats = 1,95 seats Durban = 119 /500 x 15 = 3,57 seats Frere = 140 /500 x 15 = 4,2 seats Milner 65 Durban 119

Frere 140 Grey = 176 /500 x 15 Grey 176 = 5,28 seats What method do you use with the decimal 15 Total 500 remainder to allocate the seats? Highest remainder get the left over seats

2 4 4 5

Constituency Representation
Here you vote for a specific candidate, who usually belongs to a Party, to represent your voting area or constituency in Parliament. The elected candidates to Parliament of the majority Party, choose the President. e.g. In a particular voting Area, 220 vote for Person A and 189 vote for Person B. Who is the constituency winner for that area? Person A

Smallville is divided into 5 voting areas. Three Parties choose one candidate in each voting area to represent them. The table shows the no. of votes each candidates Party received per voting area. Votes Complete the table. How many Snap Pop Go Winner votes were 500 po cast in 1 42 51 11 p Smallville? go Which party won Pop 2 51 12 52 pop the election? 3 15 31 26 pop What % of total votes 4 28 42 10 snap did this Party 5 76 26 20 receive? 12 6 /500 x 100 = 32,4% Tot 212 162 126

S.A. Elections
SA uses Proportional Representation to elect its 400 members of the National Assembly. What is the smallest % of the votes that a party must win to get 1 seat in Parliament?
1

/400 x 100 = 0,25%

If there were 433 591 registered voters in the North West province in 2004 and 329 707 voted, what % voted?29707 / 3 x 100 439 351 = 76,04%

In 2004, 15 863 558 votes were cast which represented 76,73% of the registered voters. How many registered voters were 1there? No. = 5863558 /76,73 x 100 20 674 518 There were approximately 47,5 million people in 2004. What % of the population voted? % = 15,863558 /47,5 x 100 33,4 % Why do you think this % is so low?
Non-voters & u18 year olds make up a big part of the population.

The total number of valid votes in 2004 were 15 612 671. The table shows an extract of some results from the 2004 General Elections. Party Votes % Complete the table.
Source:IEC

Which Party did not get a seat in the Assembly? KISS

Approximately how many of the 400 seats were allocated to the ID?269765 /15612671 x 400 6,911 7seats

269765 108866 4 KISS 6514 NNP 257824

ID IFP

1,73 6,97 0,04 1,65

sk Ta
It

Your county is divided into 7 districts.

has 2000 voters who will vote in their own district to elect the Big Chief. There are 3 candidates standing representing different parties. Name your county, the candidates and their party. Allocate the 2000 voters into the 7 districts. Use proportional and constitutional representation. The no. of votes for each candidate must be : CTA draft training module the
Adapted