198 Methods of Election. 



they are erroneous in this case. This will be sufficient for 

 my purpose, for it will be easily seen that the ' methods 

 will be still more liable to error if the number of candidates 

 be greater than three. I shall then discuss at some length 

 the proposed method in the case of three candidates, and 

 afterwards consider more briefly the case of any number of 

 candidates. 



Methods of the First Class. 



In the first class three methods may be placed, viz., the 

 single vote method, the double vote method, and the method 

 of Borda. In these methods the electors have only to vote 

 once, and the result is arrived at by means of a single 

 scrutiny. 



The Single Vote Method. 



This is the simplest of all methods, and is the one 

 adopted for Parliamentary elections in all English-speaking 

 communities in the case in which there is only one vacancy 

 to be filled. As is well known, each elector has one vote,, 

 which he gives to some one candidate, and the candidate 

 who obtains the greatest number of votes is elected. This 

 method is used for any number of candidates; but in 

 general the larger the number of candidates the more 

 unsatisfactory is the result. 



In this method, unless some candidate obtains an absolute 

 majority of the votes polled, the result may be contrary to 

 the wishes of the majority. For, suppose that there are 

 twelve electors and three candidates, A, B, C, who receive 

 respectively five, four, and three votes. Then A, having the 

 largest number of votes, is elected. This result, however, 

 may be quite wrong ; for it is quite possible that the four 

 electors who vote for B may prefer C to A, and the three 

 electors who vote for C may prefer B to A. If this were 

 the case, and the question 



That A is to be preferred to B 

 were put to the whole body of electors, it would be 

 negatived by a majority of two, and the question 



That A is to be preferred to C 

 would also be negatived by a majority of two. Thus the 

 single vote method places at the head of the poll a 

 candidate who is declared by a majority of the electors to 

 be inferior to each of the other candidates. In fact, if A 

 and B were the only candidates B would win; or if A and 



