imported>Omegatron: List other names

2025-06-30T20:28:24Z

List other names

New page

{{refimprove|date=December 2015}}
{{Electoral systems}}
'''Multiple transferable voting''', sometimes called '''block preferential''', '''block instant-runoff''', '''multi-pass''', or '''cascade voting''',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vanderklipp |first=Al |date=2025-06-27 |title=For Juneau, There’s a Better Way than Cascade Voting |url=https://www.sightline.org/2025/06/27/for-juneau-theres-a-better-way-than-cascade-voting/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Sightline Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> is a [[winner-take-all system]] for electing several representatives from a multimember [[constituency]]. Unlike [[single transferable voting]] (STV), preferential block voting is not a method for obtaining [[proportional representation]], and instead produces similar results to [[plurality block voting]]. Preferential block voting can be seen as a multiple-winner version of [[Instant-runoff voting|instant-runoff]].

Under both block voting and preferential block voting, a single group of like-minded voters can win every seat, making both forms non-proportional.

== Casting and counting the ballots ==
In preferential block voting, a [[ranked ballot]] is used, ranking candidates from most to least preferred. Alternate ballot forms may have two groupings of marks, first giving ''n'' votes for an ''n'' seat election (as in traditional ''bloc voting''), but also allowing the alternate candidates to be ranked in order of preference and used if one or more first choices are eliminated.

Candidates with the smallest tally of first preference votes are eliminated (and their votes transferred as in [[Instant-runoff voting|instant runoff voting]]) until a candidate has more than half the vote. The count is repeated with the elected candidates removed and all votes returning to full value until the required number of candidates is elected. An example of this method is described in [[Robert's Rules of Order]].<ref>{{Cite parl|title = RONR|edition = 11th|year = 2011|pages = 425-428}}(RONR)</ref>
== Effects ==
With or without a preferential element, block voting systems have a number of features which can make them unrepresentative of the diversity of voters' intentions. Block voting regularly produces complete [[landslide victory|landslide]] majorities for the group of candidates with the highest level of support. Under preferential block voting, a slate of [[clone (voting)|clones]] of the first winning candidate are guaranteed to win every available seat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reilly |first1=Ben | last2=Michael | first2=Maley |editor-last1=Bowler |editor-first1=Shaun | editor-last2=Grofman | editor-first2=Bernard |title=Elections in Australia, Ireland, and Malta under the Single Transferable Vote: Reflections on an Embedded Institution |publisher=University of Michigan Press |date=2000 |pages=37–58 |chapter=Chapter 3: The Single Transferable Vote and the Alternative Vote Compared |isbn=978-0-472-02681-4}}</ref>

== Use ==
Block voting was used in the [[Australian Senate]] from 1901 to 1948; from 1919, this was preferential block voting.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Farrell |first1=David M. |last2=McAllister |first2=Ian |date=2005 |title=1902 and the Origins of Preferential Electoral Systems in Australia |url=http://www.prsa.org.au/farrell1902.pdf |journal=Australian Journal of Politics and History |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=155–167 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.2005.00368.x |access-date=2020-08-03}}</ref> More recently, the system has been used to elect local councils in Australia’s Northern Territory.<ref> {{cite journal |last1=Sanders |first1=William |title=Alice's Unrepresentative Council: Cause for Intervention? |url= https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2011.623669 |journal=Australian Journal of Political Science |year=2011 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=699–706 |doi=10.1080/10361146.2011.623669 |s2cid=154563517 |access-date=2021-02-16|url-access=subscription }} </ref> In elections in 2007 and 2009, [[Hendersonville, North Carolina]] used a form of preferential block voting. In 2009, [[Aspen, Colorado]] also used a form of preferential block voting for a single election before repealing the system. In 2018, the state of [[Utah]] passed a state law creating a pilot program for municipalities to use instant runoff voting for single seat contests and preferential block voting for multi seat contests, and in 2019, [[Payson, Utah]] and [[Vineyard, Utah]] each held preferential block voting contests for three and two city council seats respectively.<ref>Jack Santucci and Benjamin Reilly, [https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/01/23/utahs-new-kind-of-ranked-choice-voting-could-hurt-political-minorities-and-sometimes-even-the-majority/ "Utah’s new kind of ranked-choice voting could hurt political minorities — and sometimes even the majority"]</ref>

== Ballots ==
{| class=wikitable width=600
!Rank ballot
!colspan=2|Hybrid ballots
|-
|valign=top|[[Image:Preferential bloc voting ballot 3.png|150px]]
|valign=top|[[Image:Preferential bloc voting ballot 1.png|240px]]
|valign=top|[[Image:Preferential bloc voting ballot 2.png|200px]]
|-
|colspan=3|Three example ballots for a two-seat election, the first using a pure [[ranked ballot]], and the second using a plurality block voting ballot for the initial vote, and ranking only the alternate preferences. The hybrid ballots are intended to clarify the fact that the top ''n'' choices are counted simultaneously, and the ranked choices are used conditionally based on elimination.

|}

== See also ==
* [[Block approval voting]], its approval voting equivalent
* [[Single transferable vote]], its proportional equivalent
* [[Multiple non-transferable vote]], its plurality equivalents

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Voting systems}}
[[Category:Non-proportional multi-winner electoral systems]]
[[Category:Preferential electoral systems]]

Block preferential voting - Revision history

imported>Omegatron: List other names