29
§ 3. Method for preventing waste of Votes.
Assuming it to be agreed that each District is to return 2 or more Members, and that each Elector is to give one vote only, we have now to consider what is to be done when 2 or more Candidates of the same party have got, among them, enough votes to be returned, but when some have got more than the quota, and others less. It is obviously not fair that the party should fail in bringing in their rightful number of Members, merely by an accidental disarrangement of votes; but how to make an equitable transfer of the superfluous votes is by no means so obvious.
Various methods have been proposed for this: of which I will consider two:—
(1) "The Proportional Representation Society" proposes to let each Elector hand in a list of Candidates, marked in the order of his preference; and that his vote, if not required for his No. 1, should be transferred to his No. 2, and, if not required for him, then to No. 3, and so on. One great objection to this method is the confusion it would cause in the mind of an ignorant Elector, who, though quite able to name his favourite
