Preferential block voting, is a
majoritarian
Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda that asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, social class, or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of p ...
voting system
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections m ...
for electing several representatives from a single multimember
constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
. Unlike the
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
(STV), preferential block voting is not a method for obtaining
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, and instead produces similar results to
plurality block voting
Plurality block voting, also known as plurality-at-large voting, block vote or block voting (BV) is a non- proportional voting system for electing representatives in multi-winner elections. Each voter may cast as many votes as the number of sea ...
(a type of ''multiple non-transferable vot''e, MNTV), of which it can be seen as the
instant-runoff version, making it a ''multiple transferable vote (MTV)''. Under both systems, a single group of like-minded voters can win every seat, making both forms of block voting non-proportional.
Casting and counting the ballots
In preferential block voting, a
ranked ballot
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
is used, ranking candidates from most to least preferred. Alternate ballot forms may have two groupings of marks, first giving ''n'' votes for an ''n'' seat election (as in traditional ''bloc voting''), but also allowing the alternate candidates to be ranked in order of preference and used if one or more first choices are eliminated.
Candidates with the smallest tally of first preference votes are eliminated (and their votes transferred as in
instant runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the U ...
) until a candidate has more than half the vote. The count is repeated with the elected candidates removed and all votes returning to full value until the required number of candidates is elected. An example of this method is described in
Robert's Rules of Order
''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert.
"The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for which ...
.
Effects
With or without a preferential element, block voting systems have a number of features which can make them unrepresentative of the diversity of voters' intentions. Block voting regularly produces complete
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
majorities for the group of candidates with the highest level of support. Under preferential block voting, a slate of
clones
Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to:
Places
* Clones, County Fermanagh
* Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland
Biology
* Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...
of the first winning candidate are guaranteed to win every available seat. Although less representative, this does tend to lead to greater agreement among those elected.
Use
Block voting was used in the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a t ...
from 1901 to 1948; from 1919, this was preferential block voting. More recently, the system has been used to elect local councils in Australia’s Northern Territory. In elections in 2007 and 2009,
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. It is south of Asheville and is the county seat of Henderson County. Like the county, the city is named for 19th-century North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leon ...
used a form of preferential block voting. In 2009,
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
also used a form of preferential block voting for a single election before repealing the system. In 2018, the state of
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
passed a state law creating a pilot program for municipalities to use instant runoff voting for single seat contests and preferential block voting for multi seat contests, and in 2019,
Payson, Utah
Payson is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo– Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 21,101 at the 2020 census.
History
Pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led by J ...
and
Vineyard, Utah
Vineyard is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population grew from 139 at the 2010 census to 12,543 at the 2020 census making it the fastest growing city in Utah ...
each held preferential block voting contests for three and two city council seats respectively.
[Jack Santucci and Benjamin Reilly]
"Utah’s new kind of ranked-choice voting could hurt political minorities — and sometimes even the majority"
/ref>
Ballots
See also
* Block approval voting
Multiwinner approval voting, also called approval-based committee voting, is a multi-winner electoral system that uses approval ballots. Each voter may select ("approve") any number of candidates, and multiple candidates are elected. The number of ...
, its approval voting equivalent
* Single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
, its proportional equivalent
* Multiple non-transferable vote
The multiple non-transferable vote (MNTV) is a group of voting system, in which voters elect several representatives at once, with each voter having more than one vote. MNTV uses multi-member electoral districts or only one district, which conta ...
, its plurality equivalents
References
{{Reflist
Non-proportional multi-winner electoral systems
Preferential electoral systems