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Tom Monto

old book - Buckalew PR (1872)

Updated: Feb 24

Charles Buckalew 1872 book Proportional representation; or, The representation of successive majorities in federal, state, municipal, corporate and primary elections describes use of limited voting. mentions Hare but has little about STV.


Buckalew's book Proportional Representation of 1872 is available on Hathitrust.


Buckalew, like many other early reformers, emphasized the need for effective voting - that as many votes as possible should be used to actually elect someone.


In preliminary remarks he lays out reasons to reform the election system, referencing Thomas Hare, the Btitish inventor of the Single Transferable Voting system.


"Mr. Hare is authority for the statement that the percentage of disfranchisement upon votes cast in Parliamentary elections is [large].

He says : 'Those who, disagreeing with the majority in their electoral districts, are now in Parliamentary elections outvoted and left without representation, cannot ordinarily be taken at less than two-fifths of the whole electoral body.' (from "Memorandum on the History, Working and Results of Cumulative Voting", prepared by Thomas Hare at the request of the English Government. p. 14.)

[This is an awkward way to say that at least two-fifths of those who vote usually do not elect anyone and have no representation in the Parliament, only the choice of the majority (actually usually the candidate with plurality) being the sole candidate elected in each district. And because this two-fifths in each district may belong to just one party, the resulting make-up of the chamber is disproportional to votes cast.]


"It may be assumed that, in contested State and municipal elections in this country, the average proportion of unrepresented voters is as great as in elections for members of Congress and members of Parliament — in other words, that the average rate of virtual disfranchisement of voters in our contested popularelections is fully two-fifths of the total vote. This startling fact is the first one to be considered, and considered attentively, in any intelligent examination of the great subject of electoral reform in the United States; for all schemes for the amendment of popular representation in government must be insufficient and illusory which ignore it or underrate its enormous significance."


He goes on to discuss free list (list PR) on page xiv


Hare, the inventor of the Hare (STV) election system, is mentioned in many places in the book.


On page 228 Buckalew's book described Pennsylvania's 1870 adoption of Cumulative Voting.

Cumulative Voting uses multi-member district same as STV does,

but unlike STV each voter under CV has multiple votes.


Like STV, under CV, voter can vote just for one candidate -

under STV a voter can only vote for one candidate.

Under CV, he or she lump all of his or her votes on one candidate, or can spread them out.


Best that CV can do is ensure that any group with Droop quota who places all their votes on one candidate will see that one candidate elected. perhaps a smaller group with luck may elect their member but not certain. Usually CV means that the majority gets all but one seat and one minority group takes that one seat.

(sometimes twofifths is given as amount that CV ensures representation but Droop seems to be to more accurate.)

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Buckalew was writing at a time when various election systems (voting methods) were in contention as the best alternative for FPTP or Block Voting.

Whereas today list PR, STV, MMP and SNTV are the main alternatives considered or adopted, back then Cum. Voting, Limited Voting, the Bucklin Count, the schedule PR plan, Gove PR and more were also in the running.

Even today PR itself in any form is not necessarilly the only choice considered for a replacement for FPTP or Block Voting -- Instant-Runoff Voting (AKA Alternative Voting) and Contingent Voting are held up as being good alternatives to FPTP, even though they are single winner and can never produce proportional representation.


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