The general ticket or party block voting (PBV),[1] is a type of block voting in which voters opt for a party or a team of candidates, and the highest-polling party/team becomes the winner and receives 100% of the seats for this multi-member district. The party block voting is usually applied with more than one multi-member district to prevent one team winning all seats. This system has a winner-take-all nature similar to first-past-the-post voting for single-member districts, which is vulnerable to gerrymandering and majority reversals.
A related system is the majority bonus system, where a block of seats is awarded according to the winner of party-list proportional representation.
Usage
Philippines
From 1941 up to 1949 elections, the Philippines elected its officials under this system, then known as block voting. A voter can write the name of the party on the ballot and have all of that voter's votes allocated for that party's candidates, from president to local officials; there is still an option for a voter to split one's ticket down ballot and not write the name of the party. This led to landslides for the Nacionalista Party in 1941, for the Liberal Party in 1949. The law was amended in time for the 1951 election, having voters to vote for each office separately.[2]
Singapore
In Singapore, the general ticket system, locally known as the party block vote, elects by far most members of the Parliament of Singapore from multi-member districts known as group representation constituencies (GRCs), on a plurality basis. This operates in parallel to elections from single-member district and nominations. It is moderated by the inclusion of at least one person of a different race than the others in any "team" (which is not necessarily a party team) which is selected by voters.[citation needed]
United States
Ticket voting is used to elect electors for the Electoral College for presidential elections, except for some of the electors in Maine and Nebraska who are elected by first-past-the-post in districts covering just part of each state. Under ticket voting, votes for any non-overall winning party's candidates do not receive any representation by elected members.
Coexistence
The following countries use party block voting in coexistence with other systems in different districts.[citation needed]
| Country | Legislative body | Latest election (year) | (Seats per
constituency) |
Electoral system | Total seats | Share of seats elected by PBV | Constituencies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) |
National Assembly | 2021 | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) in single-member districts and party block voting (PBV) in multi-member districts | 255 | electoral districts | |||
 Egypt |
House of Representatives | 2020 | 1 (local districts), 42-100 (list districts) | Two-round system (TRS) and party block voting (PBV/General ticket) | 59 | electoral districts | ||
 Singapore |
Parliament | 2020 | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) in single-member districts and party block voting (PBV) in multi-member districts | 104 (93 directly elected) | ||||
 United States |
Electoral College |
2020 | 1-54 | The electors of the Electoral College (who have opportunity to elect the President of the United States) are elected by general ticket in 48 states based on state-wide party vote tallies.
Nebraska and Maine use the general ticket method for 2 statewide electors each, with the other electors chosen by first-past-the-post in single-member congressional districts. |
538 | All states except Maine and Nebraska, where congressional districts are also used as constituencies | ||
Superposition
Countries using party block voting in parallel with proportional representation.[citation needed]
| Country | Legislative body | Latest election (year) | (Seats per
constituency) |
Electoral system | Total seats | Share of seats elected by PBV | Constituencies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andorra |
General Council | 2019 | 2 (local districts) / 14 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting / superposition (MMM):
Party block voting (PBV) locally + list PR nationwide |
28 | 50% | 7 parishes,
1 nationwide constituency | |
 Cameroon |
National Assembly | 2020 | 1-7 | Coexistence+conditional supermixed/hybrid:
First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) in single-member constituencies, party with over 50% of vote gets all seats in multi-member constituencies (party block voting), otherwise highest party gets half, rest distributed by largest remainder (Hare quota) |
180 | (50%/100%) | electoral districts | |
 Chad |
National Assembly | 2011 | ?[citation needed] | Coexistence+conditional supermixed/hybrid:
First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) party with over 50% of vote gets all seats in multi-member constituencies (party block voting), otherwise List PR (largest remainder, closed list)[3] |
188 | (50%/100%) | electoral districts | |
 Djibouti |
National Assembly | 2018 | 3-28 | Fusion / majority jackpot (MBS):
80% of seats (rounded to the nearest integer) in each constituency are awarded to the party receiving the most votes (party block voting), remaining seats are allocated proportionally to other parties receiving over 10% (closed list, D'Hondt method) |
65 | 80% | regions | |
History
Historically party block voting was used in the US House of Representatives before 1967 but mainly before 1847; and in France, in the pre-World War I decades of the Third Republic which began in 1870.
France
The scrutin de liste (Fr. scrutin, voting by ballot, and liste, a list) was, before World War I, a system of election of national representatives in France by which the electors of a department voted for a party-homogeneous slate of deputies to be elected to serve it nationally. It was distinguished from the scrutin d'arrondissement, also called scrutin uninominal, under which the electors in each arrondissement returned one deputy.[4]
United States
The following is a table of every instance of the use of the general ticket in the United States Congress. General ticket system was common until limited to special use by the 1842 Apportionment Bill and locally implementing legislation which took effect after the 1845–47 Congress.[5] Until the Congress ending in 1967 it took effect in rare instances, save for a two cases of ex-Confederate States – for one term – these had tiny delegations, were for top-up members to be at-large allocated pending redistricting, or were added to the union since the last census.
| Congress | Dates | State and number of representatives |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1789–1791 | Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3), Pennsylvania (8) |
| 2nd | 1791–1793 | Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3) |
| 3rd | 1793–1795 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (2) |
| 4th and 5th | 1795–1799 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2) |
| 6th | 1799–1801 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2) |
| 7th | 1801–1803 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2) |
| 8th | 1803–1805 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2), Tennessee (3) |
| 9th to 12th | 1805–1813 | Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Jersey (5), Rhode Island (2) |
| 13th | 1813–1815 | Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6) |
| 14th to 16th | 1815–1821 | Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6) |
| 17th | 1821–1823 | Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 18th | 1823–1825 | Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (5) |
| 19th | 1825–1827 | Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 20th | 1827–1829 | Connecticut (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 21st and 22nd | 1829–1833 | Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 23rd and 24th | 1833–1837 | Connecticut (6), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2) |
| 25th and 26th | 1837–1841 | New Hampshire (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 27th | 1841–1843 | Alabama (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Hampshire (5), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2) |
| 28th | 1843–1845 | New Hampshire (4), Georgia (8), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4) |
| 29th | 1845–1847 | Iowa (2), New Hampshire (4), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4) |
| 30th | 1847–1849 | Wisconsin (2) |
| 31st to 34th | 1849–1857 | California (2) |
| 35th to 37th | 1857–1863 | California (2), Minnesota (2) |
| 38th to 42nd | 1863–1873 | California (3) |
| 43rd to 47th | 1873–1883 | Florida (2), Kansas (3) |
| 48th | 1883–1885 | Maine (4) |
| 51st and 52nd | 1889–1893 | South Dakota (2) |
| 53rd to 57th | 1893–1903 | South Dakota (2), Washington (2) |
| 58th to 60th | 1903–1909 | North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Washington (3) |
| 61st | 1909–1911 | North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2) |
| 62nd | 1911–1913 | North Dakota (2), New Mexico (2), South Dakota (2) |
| 63rd | 1913–1915 | Idaho (2), Montana (2), Utah (2) |
| 64th | 1915–1917 | Idaho (2), Montana (2) |
| 65th to 72nd | 1917–1933 | Idaho (2), Montana (2) |
| 73rd | 1933–1935 | Kentucky (9), Minnesota (9), Missouri (13), North Dakota (2), Virginia (9) |
| 74th to 77th | 1935–1943 | North Dakota (2) |
| 78th to 80th | 1943–1949 | Arizona (2), New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2) |
| 81st to 87th | 1949–1963 | New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2) |
| 88th | 1963–1965 | Alabama (8), Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2) |
| 89th and 90th | 1965–1969 | Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2) |
| 91st | 1969–1971 | Hawaii (2) |
See also
References
Sources
External links
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