Two Shortcomings of Many How Expressive Multi-Winner Multi-Member Board Methods Achieve Proportional Representation In most US multi-winner elections when there are two or more seats to fill on a council or board and many • Voters weight candidates differently. candidates vying for those seats, a voter may only give a single vote to each favored candidate up to the number • The tabulation process weights each vote of seats to fill. This limited choice often causes according to a prescribed formula. • instead of Expressive Voting • Underrepresentation of sizable groups or ideas “The League supports voting methods that A lack of diverse viewpoints can lead to distrust, can improve the experience, that disgust and apathy among the underrepresented part encourage honest voting rather than tactical Does your locally elected board or of the electorate. voting, and that consider ease of council represent your community? implementation. … Members of some boards are elected via single-winner district elections. However, geographic location does Multi-winner voting methods can promote Do you live in a gerrymandered district? not always determine voter interests. Changing from proportional representation which fosters single-winner to multi-winner elections helps eliminate diversity of our elected officials.” • Gerrymandering - Excerpt from the LWV of Colorado position on • Uncontested and Uncompetitive Elections Voting Methods Better

Multi-winner elections can promote Multi-Winner

proportional representation. Voting Methods

Proportional representation is the concept that one or LWV of Boulder County more characteristics of a population are proportionally Voting Methods Team reflected in an elected body. P.O. Box 21274, Boulder, CO 80308 lwvbc.org →Teams at Work → Voting Methods Proportional voting methods enable sizable Interested in better single-winner voting methods? communities-of-interest to elect candidates who better See our single-winner voting methods pamphlet. represent their views. February 2020

Cumulative Voting (STV) Mixed-Member Proportional For a five-winner contest, you have five votes to You rank the candidates: 1 for your first choice, 2 for Representation (MMP) distribute among candidates, including the option of your second choice and so on. Any candidate receiving You get two – choose a candidate for the giving all five to one candidate. The five candidates the threshold number of votes is elected. (The threshold single-winner district seat and choose a political with the most votes win. depends on the number of seats to fill – if 5 seats, then party for overall representation. After the district the threshold is about 17% of the vote.) candidates are elected, the at-large seats are allocated to Two versions of ballots: parties in a compensatory manner to achieve more One or more candidates may win outright in the first proportional representation. Points (Used in local elections in more than 5 states) round. Otherwise, candidates may receive transferred Fill in up to 5 ovals. votes from ballots whose first choice received the fewest Forms of MMP are used in countries in 5 continents. [An actual lists each candidate 5 times.] number of votes and was therefore eliminated or from ballots whose first choice received surplus votes over the Sample District MMP Ballot threshold. The elimination-and-transfer process ●○○○○ lemon bar Vote for one CANDIDATE. Vote for one PARTY. continues in sequential rounds until all seats are filled. ○●●○○ chocolate cake ○ lemon bar ● Lemon

○○○○○ lemon meringue pie ○ chocolate cake ○ Chocolate STV is one version of multi-winner Ranked Choice ○○○○○ chocolate chip cookie ● vanilla custard ○ Vanilla Voting. In the 1900s more than 20 US cities used STV. ○○○●● vanilla custard Result: This voter wants the Lemon Party to have more ○○○○○ chocolate malt Cambridge, Minneapolis, and Eastpointe (MI) now use representation but is supporting vanilla custard as the district ○○○○○ vanilla ice cream STV. The Fair Representation Act proposes multi- representative. Result: lemon bar = 1, chocolate cake = 2, vanilla custard = 2 member congressional districts with STV. Multi-Winner Approval Voting Even and Equal (Used for Peoria, IL city council) STV Ballot Rank the candidates in order of preference. Vote for ALL the candidates you support regardless Fill in up to 5 ovals. of the number of seats to fill. Proportional Approval 1 2 ● 4 5 6 7 lemon bar 1 ● 3 4 5 6 7 chocolate cake Voting, Sequential Proportional Approval Voting ● lemon bar (SPAV) and Satisfaction Approval Voting use weights ● chocolate cake 1 2 3 ● 5 6 7 lemon meringue pie 1 2 3 4 5 6 ● chocolate chip cookie in different ways to maximize satisfaction among voters. ○ lemon meringue pie A fourth version, Approval Block Voting, is similar to ○ chocolate chip cookie ● 2 3 4 5 6 7 vanilla custard 1 2 3 4 ● 6 7 chocolate malt the most common US multi-winner voting method and ● vanilla custard does not promote proportional representation. ○ chocolate malt 1 2 3 4 5 ● 7 vanilla ice cream Result: Vanilla custard receives this ballot’s vote. During the ○ vanilla ice cream SPAV was used in the early 1900s in Sweden. The other 5 2 tabulation, if custard receives the fewest votes, then this ballot’s Result: lemon bar = chocolate cake = vanilla custard = /3 = 1 /3 vote goes to chocolate cake, or if cake has been eliminated, then to proportional versions were developed in this century. lemon bar.