In any election in which seats are allocated within geographic districts, wrong-winner elections can occur. Seat-to-vote distortions are most common and severe in winner-take-all elections, such as the election for Michigan's House of Representatives last November in which Republicans retained control of the legislature even though Democrats won 54 % of the vote. But wrong-winners can occasionally occur under fair voting systems as well, particularly when Districts have a relatively high threshold for election-16. 7 % threshold in Malta, for instance. Furthermore, because of Malta's small legislature size and evenly divided partisanship, even a small amount of distortion can be enough to produce a wrong-winner legislature. While this issue does not diminish many other benefits that choice voting has given to Malta's elections, it does merit being address.
Malta has tried to do so, modifying its choice voting system after 1981 with a series of amendments that add seats to the legislature to ensure that the party with most first choice rankings receive most seats. The seat addition system Malta most recently settled on is complex, but the gist of it is that any party that wins seats at seat-to-vote ratio lower than that of the party with the highest seat-to-vote ratio will be awarded additional seats until that distortion is correct. These changes come at a cost, however. Because they evaluate distortions only based on first choice rankings, they remove one of the biggest advantages of choice voting: namely, elimination of strategic voting by allowing voters to rank their choices sincerely without any worry that their votes will hurt their desired election outcome. In Malta's current system, voting for minor parties that are unlikely to win any district seats does not affect allocation of compensatory seats, thus diminishing the voting power of voters who choose to break from the two-Party structure. Fortunately, this tradeoff is not necessary. It is possible to implement a choice voting system that guarantees accountable government without forcing voters to choose between ranking minor party first and helping their preferred major party get the most seats in the legislature.
FairVote calls such method Districts Plus system. Here's how it could work in Malta. There are currently 65 district seats in Malta's legislature, with five representatives from each of the island's 13 districts. Districts Plus would add accountability seats, which would compensate all parties for any distortions caused by the district system.
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