Types of PR

There are almost as many forms of PR as countries using it, but several types predominate:

• In the Party List system, party members select the best party candidates; an ordered list of candidates is prepared based on the primary election's outcome. General election voters then select a party with the list of candidates most representative of their opinions. Legislators are then elected by the proportion of votes given to each party. If a legislature has 100 seats and a party gets 12% of the vote, then the first 12 candidates on the party list will be elected.



• In the Choice Voting system, large geographic districts are drawn with several representatives designated for each. Voters rank all the candidates in order of preference. First place votes are then counted; the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and the votes are counted again with the second place votes of the eliminated candidates' voters tabulated. This process continues until the candidates remaining equal the number of representatives allotted to the district. In a three-member district, this process would yield three representatives who had received approximately 33% support from the electorate. A variation of choice voting would require that candidates receive a certain threshold percentage of the first choice vote or be eliminated from contention.



• The same large geographic districts with several representatives would be used in the Cumulative Voting system. Voters would be given as many votes as there were seats to fill and could use all votes on a single candidate or distribute the votes among different candidates. The system was used in Illinois for many years.