Methods of Election. 239 



this would be the case at each scrutiny until all but one of 

 the candidates in the bracket are rejected. Electors would 

 very soon find this out. Each elector would ask himself 

 the question, How must I vote in order to get as much 

 electoral power as possible ; and the answer would very 

 soon be seen to be — I must bracket all the candidates I don't 

 object to for the first place, and I must arrange all the rest 

 in numerical order. Thus, instead of encouraging the 

 electors to arrange all the candidates in order of merit, this 

 plan would lead to each elector trying all he could to defeat 

 objectionable candidates without expressing any opinion as 

 to the relative merits of those he does not object to. 



Rule for Forfeit. 



If the method which is proposed were adopted for parlia- 

 mentary elections, it is clear that the number of candidates 

 would be very much greater than at present. In order 

 to prevent the number becoming so great as to make the 

 election unmanageable, it is necessary to provide some method 

 for keeping the number of candidates within reasonable 

 bounds. Such a provision exists for the method now in use. 

 It is that any candidate who fails to obtain one-fifth of the 

 number of votes polled by the lowest successful candidate 

 forfeits the deposit which he has lodged with the returning- 

 officer. This rule is, of course, purely empirical, and we 

 must fix upon some rule of the same kind for the proposed 

 method. I will first state a rule for the method as first 

 described — i.e., when positive votes are used. This rule is 

 as follows : — 



If at the first scrutiny any candidate has a number of 

 votes which is less than half the number of votes polled by 

 the candidate who is highest at the first scrutiny, he shall 

 forfeit his deposit. 



In the mode of applying the method which is most con- 

 venient in practice this rule takes a somewhat more com- 

 plicated form, as follows : — 



If at the first scrutiny any candidate has a number of 

 votes which, together with a number which is equal to half 

 the number of electors, exceeds half the number of votes 

 polled by the candidate who has the smallest number of 

 votes by the average for the first scrutiny, he shall forfeit 

 his deposit. 



