Top ten things you need to know ELECTORAL SYSTEMS Top ten things you need to know

SOME IMPORTANT KEY TERMS 1 SOME IMPORTANT KEY TERMS riding constituents electorate suffrage “won the seat“ “won the popular vote”

FIRST PAST THE POST AKA SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY 2 FIRST PAST THE POST AKA SINGLE MEMBER PLURALITY Political parties choose candidate to run in riding (or person runs as independent) Constituents vote for their chosen representative partly based on the person and partly on ideology of party The candidate with most votes (plurality) wins the seat

CREATION OF GOVERNMENT, OFFICIAL OPPOSITION 3 CREATION OF GOVERNMENT, OFFICIAL OPPOSITION The party w/most seats in House of Commons (or province: in Legislature) = the government = get to create the executive (PM and Cabinet) Second most seats = official opposition (shadow cabinet)

CONCERN: ARTIFICIAL MAJORITIES 4 CONCERN: ARTIFICIAL MAJORITIES % of popular vote does not usually match % of seats = power given to a party does not match what the electorate wanted them to have

FIRST PAST THE POST Liberal PC NDP Alliance Bloc Other 45% 25% 15% 5% 5% 10% 75% 20% 40% 35% 65% Who won the first riding; second; third… What would happen if the PC and Alliance merge and share votes How many seats did the Liberals win – what percent is that What percent of the overall vote did the Liberals gain (5/7 = 71%) (36%)

5 US ELECTORAL COLLEGE On election day citizens vote for president The votes are added up – whomever gets the most votes wins the state (first past the post) This information given to electoral college that actually casts the real vote for president

Presidential Candidate % of Votes % of Electoral Votes Gore 48.3 49 Bush 48.1 50 Other (Nader) 3.4 1

TWO PARTY VS MULTIPARTY 6 TWO PARTY VS MULTIPARTY Two Party Multi Party Pros Clear cut winner (50%) Greater ideological representation Cons Ideologically focused on the center Minority governments/coalitions

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION 7 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION Citizens vote for the party of their choice (not a person/representative) All votes tallied up for entire country % of popular vote = % of seats in legislature

SWEDEN Party % of Votes % of Seats Social Democrat 36.4 37 Moderate 22.9 23 Left-Wing 12 Christian-Democrats 11.8 Center 5.1 5 Liberal 4.7 Green 4.5

CONS OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION 8 CONS OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION The party gets to choose representatives, not the people More likely to have minority government and coalitions = less stable Fringe parties can get more support

9 Mixed member ballot Proportional Representation First Past the Post

10 FIXED DATE VS PERIODIC Fixed Date Elections Periodic Elections Pros Governing party cannot manipulate date in their favor Shorter election campaign periods Cons The next election campaign can begin as soon as the election is over Governing party can manipulate the date to extend their mandate