Methods of Election. 207 



the mode of conducting the scrutinies in Ware's method. 



At each scrutiny each elector has one vote, which is 

 given to the candidate, if any, who stands highest in the 

 elector's order of preference. 



The votes for each candidate are then counted, and if 

 any candidate has an absolute majority, of the votes counted 

 he is elected. 



But if no candidate has such an absolute majority, the 

 candidate who has fewest votes is excluded, and a new 

 scrutiny is proceeded with, just as if the name of such 

 excluded candidate did not appear on any voting paper. 



Successive scrutinies are then held until some candidate 

 obtains on a scrutiny an absolute majority of the votes 

 counted at that scrutiny. The candidate who obtains such 

 absolute majority is elected. 



It is obvious that this absolute majority must be arrived 

 at sooner or later. 



It is clear, also, that if on any scrutiny any candidate 

 obtain a number of votes which is greater than the sum of 

 all the votes obtained by those candidates who each obtain 

 less than that candidate, then all the candidates having such 

 less number of votes may be at once excluded. 



Ware's method has been shown to be erroneous for the 

 case of three candidates in the remarks on the French 

 method, of which it is in that case a particular form. It is 

 easy to see that if there be more than three candidates the 

 defects of this method will be still more serious. 



The objection to this method, concisely stated, is that it 

 may lead to the rejection of a candidate who is considered 

 by a majority of the electors to be better than each of the 

 other candidates. At the same time, the method is a great 

 improvement on the single vote method ; and the precise 

 advantage is that whereas the single vote method might 

 place at the head of the poll a candidate who is considered 

 by a majority of the electors to be worse than each of 

 the other candidates, it would be impossible for such a 

 candidate to be elected by Ware's method. 



To illustrate fully the difference between the two methods 

 and the defects of each, suppose that there are several can- 

 didates, A, B, C, D, . . P, Q, R, and that in the opinion of the 

 electors each candidate is better than each of the candidates 

 who follow him in the above list, so that A is clearly the 

 best, B the second best, and so on, R being the worst. Then 

 on the single vote method R may win ; on Ware's method A, 



