680 



REPRESENTATION. 



Thus, whether in congressional, State, or 

 municipal elections, the present electoral sys- 

 tem is found to work an unfair and dispropor- 

 tionate representation, and to redress these 

 inequalities is the aim of what is generally 

 known as minority representation, though the 

 more accurate phrase is proportional repre- 

 sentation. The idea of this is to secure to 

 every party a representation commensurate 

 with its strength. If there are five persons to 

 be elected by a constituency of 15,000 elec- 

 tors, and the vote stands 9,000 for the five 

 Democratic candidates, and 6,000 for the five 

 Eepublican, all five Democratic candidates 

 are, under the present electoral system, 

 elected, and the Republicans have no repre- 

 sentation. Proportional representation in- 

 sists that, as the vote stands, so should stand 

 the representation. There being three Demo- 

 cratic voters to every two Republican, the rep- 

 resentatives chosen should stand three Demo- 

 crats to two Republicans. The processes by 

 which it is proposed to accomplish this equi- 

 table division are numerous, but the more 

 prominent plans are the cumulative vote, the 

 preferential vote, the limited vote, the list 

 vote, the substitute vote, and the proxy vote. 

 The cumulative or free vote consists in giving 

 every elector as many votes as there are per- 

 sons to be chosen, with liberty to divide his 

 votes among several candidates, or cumulate 

 them all upon one, in his discretion, the can- 

 didates highest in votes to be elected. Thus, 

 if there are five persons to be elected, every 

 elector has five votes, and if we suppose a con- 

 stituency of 20,000 voters, 12,000 Republicans 

 and 8,000 Democrats, the working of the cu- 

 mulative vote is this: the Democrats having 

 40,000 votes, divide those votes equally be- 

 tween two candidates ; and the Republicans 

 divide their 60,000 votes among three candi- 

 dates. The poll will then stand: 



For A, Republican 20.000 votes ) 



ForB, ' 20.000 " V elected 3. 



ForC, " 20,000 " } 



For D, Democrat 20,000 " | . . , 



ForE, " 20,000 " j- elected 2. 



Thus both parties obtain their fair propor- 

 tion of representatives, instead of the Republi- 

 cans, by virtue of being a majority, securing 

 all the representatives. The cumulative vote 

 was originated by Mr. James Garth Marshall, 

 of England, in a work published by him in 

 London in 1853. The plan has been applied 

 by act of Parliament to all elections of school 

 directors in Great Britain under the new Edu- 

 cation Act of 1870 ; is in use for all town elec- 

 tions in Pennsylvania by acts of March 4, 

 1870, and June 2, 1871 ; and is the system un- 

 der which the members of the Illinois House 

 of Representatives are to be elected in 1872 

 and thereafter, and by which all private cor- 

 poration elections in the same State are to be 

 conducted. June 1, 1870, the same plan of 

 voting was adopted in the New Jersey Episco- 

 pal Convention; March 2, 1869, a committee 

 Df the United States Senate reported on the 



same plan: "1. It is just. 2. It will check 

 corruption. 3. It will be a guarantee of peace. 

 4. It will improve the character and ability of 

 the House." June 24 and December 12-14, 

 1870, the cumulative vote was also warmly 

 favored in the House in debate, and in New 

 York, Wisconsin, West Virginia, South Caro- 

 lina, North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, and 

 Ohio, has received attention and favor in legis- 

 lative bodies and the press. The preferential 

 vote, sometimes called the Hare scheme, is of 

 Danish origin. The whole number of votes 

 cast is divided by the number of persons to be 

 elected, and the quotient, rejecting fractions, 

 is the quota, or number of votes necessary to 

 elect a representative. Each elector votes for 

 any number of candidates, from one to the 

 whole number to be elected, designating on 

 his ticket that such a candidate is his first 

 choice, such a one his second, and so on. The 

 names mentioned as first choice on the ballots 

 are read first, and, if the name of any candidate 

 appears the quota number of times, he is ipso 

 facto elected, and any vote for him thereafter 

 appearing in the count is credited to the next- 

 named person on that ballot. Then the sec- 

 ond choices on the ballots are read under the 

 same conditions as above, and so on, regularly 

 through the choices until quotas are obtained 

 for all the representatives to be elected. Un- 

 der this system, any person who is the first 

 choice of a quota of voters secures an election 

 beyond perad venture, no matter what party 

 majority may be against him. We may sup- 

 pose a constituency of 15,000 voters called on 

 to elect three representatives. The quota 

 would be 5,000 votes. There are, say, 10,000 

 Republican and 5,000 Democratic voters. The 

 former vote for A, B, and C, giving that 

 ticket 10,000 votes, A being first choice, B 

 second, and third. The Democrats vote 

 for D, E, and F, with preference as named. 

 On reading the ballots, D and A are found to 

 have quotas, and are elected ; as the count pro- 

 ceeds other first-choice votes for A appear and 

 are credited to B, who then is found to have a 

 quota and is elected, making the representa- 

 tives stand A and B, Republican, and D, Dem- 

 ocrat, which answers fairly to the division of 

 the popular vote. The peculiar adaptability, 

 however, of the preferential vote is to cases 

 where a man, not in favor with political par- 

 ties, yet has a quota of friends who desire his 

 election. No party could then defeat him. 

 The preferential vote was applied to elections 

 of representatives to the Rigsraad, or Danish 

 legislative body, in 1853, and in 1868 was 

 further applied to all municipal and all synodi- 

 cal and other ecclesiastical elections in that 

 kingdom. In 1859 Mr. Thomas Hare advocated 

 the same system in England, in a work entitled 

 "The Machinery of Representation," pub- 

 lished by him in London in that year, but, 

 otherwise than in Denmark, the preferential 

 vote has not been reduced to practice. The 

 limited vote gives the elector a less number of 



