General ticket

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The general ticket, also known as party block voting (PBV), [1] is a type of block voting in which voters opt for a party, or a team's set list of candidates, and the highest-polling party/team becomes the winner. The system results in the victorious political party receiving 100% of the seats. Rarely used today, the general ticket is usually applied in more than one multi-member district, which theoretically allows regionally strong minority parties to win some seats.

Contents

This system is largely seen as outdated and undemocratic due to its extreme winner-take-all nature, and has mostly been replaced by methods based on proportional representation or single-member districts. When used together with multi-member geographic districts, it is highly vulnerable to gerrymandering and majority reversals. An example of the latter can be seen in the US Electoral College, where all but four members are elected using the general ticket.

The system is occasionally used in superposition with party-list proportional representation, in which case the combined method is called a majority bonus system. The system is used in Italy for one-fifth of their regional councillors.

Usage

At the national level it was used for as many as seven of the states, for any given regularly convened US Congress, in the US House of Representatives before 1967 but mainly before 1847; and in France, in the pre-World War I decades of the Third Republic which began in 1870. It is in use in the Parliament of Singapore as to its dominant type of constituencies, those being multi-member, however moderated by the inclusion of at least one person of a different race than the others in any "team" (which is not necessarily a party team) which is selected by voters.[ citation needed ]

Coexistence

The following countries use party block voting in coexistence with other systems in different districts.[ citation needed ]

CountryLegislative bodyLatest election (year)(Seats per

constituency)

Electoral systemTotal seatsShare of seats elected by PBV Constituencies
Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) National Assembly 2021 First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) in single-member districts and party block voting (PBV) in multi-member districts255electoral districts
Flag of Egypt.svg Egypt House of Representatives 2020 1 (local districts), 42-100 (list districts) Two-round system (TRS) and party block voting (PBV/General ticket)59electoral districts
Flag of Singapore.svg Singapore Parliament 2020 First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) and party block voting (PBV)104 (93 directly elected)
Flag of the United States.svg United States Flag of the United States.svg Electoral College 2020 1-54The electors of the Electoral College (who have opportunity to elect the President of the United States) are elected by general ticket in 48 states based on state-wide party vote tallies.

Nebraska and Maine use the general ticket method for 2 statewide electors each, with the other electors chosen by first-past-the-post in single-member congressional districts.

538All states except Maine and Nebraska, where congressional districts are also used as constituencies

Superposition

Countries using party block voting in parallel with proportional representation.[ citation needed ]

CountryLegislative bodyLatest election (year)(Seats per

constituency)

Electoral systemTotal seatsShare of seats elected by PBV Constituencies
Flag of Andorra.svg Andorra General Council 2019 2 (local districts) / 14 (nationwide constituency)Parallel voting / superposition (MMM):

Party block voting (PBV) locally + list PR nationwide

2850%7 parishes,

1 nationwide constituency

Flag of Cameroon.svg Cameroon National Assembly 2020 1-7 Coexistence+conditional supermixed/hybrid:

First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) in single-member constituencies,

party with over 50% of vote gets all seats in multi-member constituencies (party block voting), otherwise highest party gets half, rest distributed by largest remainder (Hare quota)

180(50%/100%)electoral districts
Flag of Chad.svg Chad National Assembly 2011 ?[ citation needed ] Coexistence+conditional supermixed/hybrid:

First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) party with over 50% of vote gets all seats in multi-member constituencies (party block voting), otherwise List PR (largest remainder, closed list) [2]

188(50%/100%)electoral districts
Flag of Djibouti.svg Djibouti National Assembly 2018 3-28Fusion / majority jackpot (MBS):

80% of seats (rounded to the nearest integer) in each constituency are awarded to the party receiving the most votes (party block voting), remaining seats are allocated proportionally to other parties receiving over 10% (closed list, D'Hondt method)

6580%regions
Flag of Greece.svg Greece Hellenic Parliament 2019 Majority bonus system (MBS)??nationwide
Flag of San Marino.svg San Marino Grand and General Council 2019 Majority bonus system (MBS)??nationwide

By country

France

The scrutin de liste (Fr. scrutin, voting by ballot, and liste, a list) was, before World War I, a system of election of national representatives in France by which the electors of a department voted for a party-homogeneous slate of deputies to be elected to serve it nationally. It was distinguished from the scrutin d'arrondissement, also called scrutin uninominal, under which the electors in each arrondissement returned one deputy. [3]

Italy

In Italy, this system applies to 15 of the regional councillors since 1995. As in the French version, its goal is to ensure that the assembly is controlled by the leading coalition of parties. There is one round of voting.[ citation needed ]

Singapore

In Singapore, the general ticket system, locally known as the party block vote, elects by far most members of the Parliament of Singapore from multi-member districts known as group representation constituencies (GRCs), on a plurality basis. This operates in parallel to elections from single-member district and nominations. It is moderated by the inclusion of at least one person of a different race than the others in any "team" (which is not necessarily a party team) which is selected by voters.

United States

Ticket voting is used to elect Electoral College for presidential elections, except for electors in Maine and Nebraska, where most of the EC members are elected by first-past-the-post in congressional districts.

Under ticket voting, votes for any non-overall winning party's candidates do not receive any representation by elected members.

In terms of paper practices, the systems used varied between issue of:

  • a single ballot, listing all candidates and party affiliations (by means of bloc voting)
  • separate ballots for each seat

This was quite common until reserved to special use by the 1842 Apportionment Bill and locally implementing legislation which took effect after the 184547 Congress. [4] Until the Congress ending in 1967 it took effect in rare instances, save for a two cases of ex-Confederate States for one term these had tiny delegations, were for top-up members to be at-large allocated pending redistricting, or were added to the union since the last census.

The following is a table of every instance of the use of the general ticket in the United States Congress.

CongressDatesState and
number of representatives
1st 1789–1791Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3), Pennsylvania (8)
2nd 1791–1793Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3)
3rd 1793–1795Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (2)
4th and 5th 1795–1799Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
6th 1799–1801Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
7th 1801–1803Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
8th 1803–1805Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2), Tennessee (3)
9th to 12th 1805–1813Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Jersey (5), Rhode Island (2)
13th 1813–1815Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
14th to 16th 1815–1821Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
17th 1821–1823Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
18th 1823–1825Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (5)
19th 1825–1827Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
20th 1827–1829Connecticut (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
21st and 22nd 1829–1833Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
23rd and 24th 1833–1837Connecticut (6), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
25th and 26th 1837–1841New Hampshire (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2)
27th 1841–1843Alabama (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Hampshire (5), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2)
28th 1843–1845New Hampshire (4), Georgia (8), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4)
29th 1845–1847Iowa (2), New Hampshire (4), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4)
30th 1847–1849Wisconsin (2)
31st to 34th 1849–1857California (2)
35th to 37th 1857–1863California (2), Minnesota (2)
38th to 42nd 1863–1873California (3)
43rd to 47th 1873–1883Florida (2), Kansas (3)
48th 1883–1885Maine (4)
51st and 52nd 1889–1893South Dakota (2)
53rd to 57th 1893–1903South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
58th to 60th 1903–1909North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Washington (3)
61st 1909–1911North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2)
62nd 1911–1913North Dakota (2), New Mexico (2), South Dakota (2)
63rd 1913–1915Idaho (2), Montana (2), Utah (2)
64th 1915–1917Idaho (2), Montana (2)
65th to 72nd 1917–1933Idaho (2), Montana (2)
73rd 1933–1935Kentucky (9), Minnesota (9), Missouri (13), North Dakota (2), Virginia (9)
74th to 77th 1935–1943North Dakota (2)
78th to 80th 1943–1949Arizona (2), New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
81st to 87th 1949–1963New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
88th 1963–1965Alabama (8), Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2)
89th and 90th 1965–1969Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2)
91st 1969–1971Hawaii (2)

See also

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References

  1. The Australian Electoral System, p. 61
  2. "Le système électoral au Tchad - Comité de Suivi de l'Appel à la Paix et à la Réconciliation" (in French). 23 September 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  3. Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Scrutin de Liste". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 487.
  4. Public Law 90-196, 2 U.S.C.   § 2c

Sources