Existing multi-member districts are prime territories for conversion to Single Transferable Voting. The only change required to provide proportionality of representation would be to allow voters to cast only one vote instead of the multiple votes allowed under existing Block Voting. Using multi-member districts and only one vote per voter there is no way one single group could grab all the seats (unless it had vast majority support). Thus mixed roughly-proportional representation would be ensured.
If the vote was ranked and thus transferable, the vote would have a chance of not being wasted if the first choice was not popular enough to be elected. This would lessen dissatisfaction with the state of democracy today.
Thus a switch to STV in such places would require only a reduction to the number of votes per voter. A quite easy switch!
On the other hand, if a municipality uses single-member districts, where voters cast just one vote each, it is easy to make the switch to STV as well. Leave the voter with the one vote (although making the votes transferable) and simply group districts together to create multiple-member districts. The switch can be done either way!
These municipalities currently elect representatives in multi-member districts:
Alberta
all Alberta municipalities, except three, elect their councillors at-large, that is, in one multi-member district that covers the whole place.
The three that use wards:
Wood Buffalo Regional Council (Fort McMurray, etc.) four wards -- one electing six, one electing two, two electing one each
(Edmonton and Calgary are the only Alberta municipalities that do not use multi-member districts. They use single-member wards, 12 and 14 in number respectively.)
Ontario municipalities with local and/or regional councillors elected at large (possible targets for using STV)
City Pop. (2011) Number
Markham 301,709 four regional councillors
Vaughan 288,301 three regional councillors
Kitchener 219,153 four regional councillors
Oshawa 149,607 seven city/regional councillors, three city-only councillors
St. Catharines 131,400 six regional-only (and two city-only from each of six wards)
Whitby 122,022 three regional councillors
Thunder Bay 108,359 five councillors at large, and seven ward councillors (mixed system)
Chatham-Kent 103,671 six Chatham, three South Kent, two from each of four other wards
Niagara Falls 82,997 eight city councillors at large, three regional councillors at large
Sarnia 72,366 four city/county councillors at large, four city-only councillors at large
North Bay 53,651 ten city councillors at large; councillor with most votes is deputy mayor
Aurora 53,203 eight city councillors at large
Belleville 49,454 six councillors ward 1, two councillors ward 2
Cornwall 46,340 ten city councillors at large
Timmins 43,165 eight councillors: four in ward 5, four more in single wards
Quinte West 43,086 12 councillors: five ward 1, four ward 2, two ward 3, 1 ward 4
St. Thomas 37,905 seven city councillors at large
Woodstock 37,754 two city/county councillors at large, four city-only councillors at large
And other smaller municipalities
Councils with two-member wards, possible targets for cumulative vote or limited vote:
Richmond Hill 185,541 two regional councillors
Cambridge 126,748 two regional councillors
Guelph 121,688 12 councillors, two from each of six wards
Waterloo 98,780 two regional councillors
Brantford 93,650 10 councillors, two from each of five wards
Peterborough 78,698 10 councillors, two from each of five wards
Sault Ste. Marie 75,141 12 councillors, two from each of six wards
Norfolk 63,175 8 councillors, two from ward 5 (Simcoe)
Halton Hills 59,008 8 councillors, two from each of four wards
Welland 50,631 12 councillors, two from each of six wards
And other smaller municipalities.
Note: Of the nine regional municipalities in Ontario, Waterloo Region and Halton Region are the only ones with a chair elected at large; the others are accountable to and chosen by regional council. (Information provided by an Ontario contact)
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