Electoral quota - Wikipedia

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In proportional representation systems, an electoral quota is the number of votes a candidate needs to be guaranteed election.

Admissible quotas[edit]

An admissible quota is a quota that is guaranteed to apportion only as many seats as are available in the legislature. Such a quota can be any number between:

${\frac {\text{votes}}{{\text{seats}}+1}}\leq {\text{quota}}\leq {\frac {\text{votes}}{{\text{seats}}-1}}$

Common quotas[edit]

There are two commonly-used quotas in Hare quota is more generous to less popular parties and the Droop quota to more popular parties. Specifically, the Hare quota is unbiased in the number of seats it hands out, and so is more proportional than the Droop quota (which tends to be biased towards larger parties).^[1]

Hare quota[edit]

The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota or Hamilton's quota) is the most common the largest remainder method of party-list proportional representation. It was used by Thomas Hare in his first proposals for STV. It is given by the expression:

${\frac {\text{total votes}}{\text{total seats}}}$

Specifically, the Hare quota is unique in being unbiased in the number of seats it hands out. This makes it more proportional than the Droop quota (which is biased towards larger parties).^[1]

Droop quota[edit]

The Droop quota is used in most single transferable vote (STV) elections today and is occasionally used in elections held under the largest remainder method of party-list proportional representation (list PR). It is given by the expression:^[2]

{\frac {\text{total votes}}{{\text{total seats}}+1}}

It was first proposed in 1868 by the English lawyer and mathematician Henry Richmond Droop (1831–1884) as a replacement for the earlier Hare quota.

Today the Droop quota is used in almost all STV elections, including those in South Africa, India, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta, and Australia.^{[citation needed]}

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Lijphart, Arend (1994). "Appendix A: Proportional Representation Formulas". Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945-1990. Oxford University Press.
^ Woodall, Douglass. "Properties of Preferential Election Rules". Voting matters (3).

Electoral systems

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Single-winner

Proportional

Systems	Dual member Mixed-member (Additional member) Mixed single vote Party-list Proportional approval voting Rural–urban Sequential proportional approval voting Single transferable vote CPO-STV Hare-Clark Schulze STV Spare vote Indirect single transferable voting
Allocation	Highest averages method Webster/Sainte-Laguë D'Hondt Largest remainder method
Quotas	Droop quota Hagenbach-Bischoff quota Hare quota Imperiali quota

Mixed

Criteria

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Admissible quotas[edit]

Common quotas[edit]

Hare quota[edit]

Droop quota[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]