THE PARTY MACHINE IN ELECTIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 6

THE PARTY MACHINE IN ELECTIONS

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION 1 IN -NEW SOUTH -WALES. I The object of the system of propor- ] tional representation, which was en- 1 dorsed by the New South Wales Legisla- 1 tire Assembly some days ago, is to en- 1 able the to choose a Parliament 1 which shall represent not only majorities, 1 but also substantial minorities. It will 1 sccuro to a candidato who runs inde- ; pendently of party nomination a chance of winning a seat if the electors are < anxious to return hiui to Parliament. j In practice a Parliamentary aspirant '■ who cannot obtain the endorsement of i one of the party selecting bodies is faced ; with what, except in very rare conditions, is a hopeless prospect if he attempts to j stand as an independent. The advo- : cates of the proportional system claim . that tho electors will have the choice : from among all the condidates who think . they have a reasonable hope, and that the selection will not be confined to the nominees of the two party organisations. The system which it is proposed to introduce into this Stato is that in operation in Tasmania, and is worked on (he Hare principle.of tho single transferable vote. From the point of view of the elector, the system is simplicity itself. The elector is given a ballot paper containing a list of the candidates, and he is required to vote for each candidate in the' order of his preference, placing the figure 1' upposite his first preference, the figure 2 opposite his second preference, and so - on. Having done this, and! placed his paper in the ballot box, his duty ends. The electoral officer, on the other hand, i has a larger task. He first of all counts all the votes polled. He then finds out what number or quota of votes, a candidate must receive in- order to be elected. He does this by dividing tho total number of votes polled by ono more than the number of seats to be filled, und. adding one to the result of such division. Thus, for example, if in a constituency returning three members, the total number of votes polled is 4.0,000, this total is divided by four. This gives a result of 10,000. One is then added, making 10,001, the total which each candidate must obtiin to be elected. The reason for this process is that in a single-member constituency, where 20,000 votes are cast, a man who gets 10,001 votes must be returned. Likewise, a two-member constituency, where 30,000 votes are cast, the two candidates who obtain 10,001 votes or more each must bo returned. Likewise, a two-member constituency, where 30.C00 votes are cast, the two candidates who obtain 10,001 votes or more each must be returned. Having ascertained the quota, or the minimum number of votes which each candidate must obtain to be elected, tho electoral officer then counts the first preferences. Those candidates who obtain their quota on the first count—that is,, the counting of the first preference | votes or votes marked with the figure 1 —are declared elected. If any candidate so declared elected -obtains mora than his quota his surplus votes—the number of votes in excess of- his quotaarc distributed in order of preference amongst the other candidates. This is done, not taking at random a number of votes equal to the surplus. of each candidates elected, but by distributing the whole of the second preference votes of the elected candidates on a percentage basis. That is to say, if Ais elected on the first count his second preference votes are allotted to the candidates marked by. the figure 2 on his ballot paper on. n percentage basis until the whole of his surplus votes are exhaust- [ id. And so tho operation proceeds until the whole of the seats arc filled. To give a sinVple illustration: Take a '■ five-member seat, in which 115 votes are recorded. Add ono to the number of ' seats, and a total of six is the. result. • Then divide the total number of votes— ' 113 —by six, and tho result is 19, the ! fraction being discarded. Then add 1 • to the. quotient, and the result is 20, or the quota which a candidate must obtain to bo elected.