Delegated Vote

Watch the Video¹:

The Delegated Vote is a proposed electoral system that doesn’t give representatives equal power, but instead gives them voting power equal to the number of votes they receive. Using this foundation principle, the value of the vote becomes consistent across constituencies allowing votes to flow across constituency boundaries and proportionality to be expressed exactly.The following four points are the foundations of the system (they can also be explained by watching the video above):

MPs have different voting powers – By getting rid of the idea that all MPs need to have an equal vote, it makes it possible for all voters to have an equal vote. Currently votes in different constituencies can be said to have different values because of the different influence they have on the outcome. By rooting the value of MPs vote in individual votes, votes at election retain a universal value. This allows us to express a proportional outcome far more precisely.

Top Candidates standing in an individual constituency automatically elected – As their voting power differs, this creates a proportional outcome. The goal is that a majority of voters are represented locally. At present, the system states that the top two candidates are elected; it might turn out to be better if it were the top three.

Constituency Pooling – As the vote has a universal value, votes can move across constituency boarders. Parties without concentrated support gain seats by standing a candidate in multiple constituencies and pooling the votes between them. If they gain a seat is decided by whether the number of votes they receive falls between an upper and lower boundary.

Upper and Lower Boundaries – The upper and lower boundaries are created from an average of the top 40 and bottom 40 vote counts of MPs elected through a single constituency. These exist so that all MPs fall within a broad range and there is not a lower criterion for entry given to MPs entering through multiple constituencies. Similarly it prevents there being any advantage for parties to stand in multiple constituencies instead of a single one, refocusing them towards local representation. The object is more to guide party behaviour than disqualify candidates.

The foundations of the system can be seen in The Value of the Vote, whilst Gerrymandering Rehabilitated explores the change in the nature of constituencies this brings about that makes full proportionality possible. Comparison with STV puts the system up against the best current proposed replacement for our voting system.

The purpose of this site is feedback and discussion so please leave a comment on any of the pages or get in contact at alex@alexparsons.co.uk

1. The map of the country is heavily derivative of the styling of the Interactive Telegraph map, my original plan was to create a map that usefully reflected the population density of the UK using a cartogram, but the simplicity of a map based on constituencies won through. The statistics used for the opening section came through analyzing the 2005 results, which can be found here. [↩]