The Value of the Vote
The key innovation of this system is rooting the value of the vote in the individual voter by giving each representative a block vote in Parliament worth the same as the amount of votes they received at election. If 35,322 people vote for a candidate, as an MP they wield a vote worth 35,322.
At present, the value of a vote can only be derived backwards. An MP has one vote and hence the value of the vote at elections is a fraction of that. Each vote cast lowers the value of all the other voters in the constituency (1 out of 10 votes is worth a lot more than 1 out of 1000): the more people who vote, the less the value of an individual vote becomes. The root of the problem is that a system must either have unequal representatives or unequal voters. At present we have the latter because as the value of your vote depends on the number of people who voted in your constituency, votes in different constituencies have different values. The sentiment ‘One person, one vote’ would be more accurate as ‘one person, one vote of varying value depending on location’ under our current system.
Why it preferable is that voter’s vote is fixed rather than MPs? If all MPs could really be said to represent the same amount of people, equal voting could be defended but as is MPs are not elected equally: differences in vote share and turnout mean that different MPs have differing levels of democratic legitimacy, not to mention the sheer gulf in constituency populations between some MPs. Whilst there is something to be said for all ‘honourable members’ standing equal, the image of all people in the country standing equal might be the more potent one. Whilst this doubtless would change the political culture, it has potential for that change to be mostly positive. The more people who vote, the more power their representative would wield at Westminster - rewarding constituencies and MPs for high turnout. No other system gives a direct incentive to strive for maximum engagement instead of a plurality of those that turn up. It reinforces the idea of popular sovereignty by having every vote expressed at Parliament in an exact figure and is a system that is more easily connected to direct democracy as for some purposes the votes would simply be returning to their source.
Is it workable? Perhaps not before reliable electronics but it would easily be possible today. Electronic voting is used successfully in the US House of Representatives; it would be simple to create a simple system that takes into account the different value of each representative’s vote. It is also possible (if time-consuming) to check by hand. It doesn’t involve complicated formula, simply large numbers.
Through the powers slowly surrendered to Parliament and the extension of the franchise, the progression of our democracy has been one that slowly admits that sovereignty comes from the people and rises from the bottom up as opposed to existing from the top down. As such, having a vote that’s value is set from the bottom up is a natural next step towards a popular democracy.