666 METHODS FOR COUNTING IN ELECTIONS. 



the use of Droop's quota frequently causes lower choices on 

 these ballot papers ito be used for certain candidates, whilst 

 higher choices for other members are passed over on the same 

 ballot paper. Hence the voter's wishes are in many cases not 

 carried out as they marked them. This 1 shall show in 

 the case of ballot papers used at two actual elections. Thus it is 

 it fails to show who are the members most preferred by all the 

 voters. 



To sum up the case against the use of Droop's quota — 



(a) By adopting Droop's quota you use Hare's proposal of 

 the transferable vote to carry out elections by the absolute 

 majority, the very system Andrae, Hare, and Mill wished to 

 supersede. 



(b) You always infallibly disfranchise certain voters, and 

 in the election of the members ignore and make no use of the 



choices marked on ballot papers to the numl)er of ;;, 



votes. n -{- I 



(c) In all cases of surplus holders who get more than 

 Droop's quota, you of necessity fail to use first-choice votes, or 

 other higher-choice votes to which those members have the best 

 right, and which with Hare's quota they can use, and you employ 

 second or lower choices on these ballot papers for other candi- 

 dates. In many cases you use as votes choices of a lower grade 

 tlian that at which the election can be finished, when all available 

 higher choices are counted for other members or candidates in 

 accordance with the wishes of the voters. 



(d) You sometimes elect members on these lower choices, 

 while other candidates could have secured election on higher 

 choices. 



(e) You always, in every election where transfers are made 

 under Droop's quota, make effective for other candidates votes 

 that might on higher choices have helped the selection of another 

 member who had a better right to these votes, and in one example 

 of an actual election, which I shall show you, you do this on 

 every one of the ballot papers which are transferred. You never 

 can be sure that you have elected the members mo.st preferred by 

 the voters. 



12. Members can be Duly Elected Without Getting the 

 Quota. — In every system of counting votes the quota secures the 

 election of the member who gets it, but it is not necessary that 

 every member should get the quota. With Hare's larger quota 

 it is much more rare for all the members to get it than with 

 Droop's. In most elections with either quota the lowest or a 

 few of the lower members are elected without obtaining the 

 quota. 



13. What Finishes Every Election. — All elections are neces- 

 sarily finished as soon as the member with the lowest number of 

 votes gets one more than all the outstanding votes. This fact is 

 recognised officially by Rule 9 (3) of the Municipal Representa- 

 tion Bill Rules (see " Proportional Representation," page 348. 



