Panachage
Free list', vote pooling or panachage' is a method used in some systems of proportional representation where voters may freely support individual candidates across party lists, and these votes are pooled together by parties to allocate seats to party lists. From the perspective of the voters, this means multiple votes, which they can split between individual candidates in different party lists. Seats are allocated to each party based on the number of votes for all of its candidates. Seats allocated to a party go to that party's most-popular candidates.
The system is used in legislative elections for Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mauritius and Switzerland; in national elections in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Honduras; and in local elections in a majority of German states, in Czechia, and in French communes with under 1,000 inhabitants.
Fictitious example
The North Staulsaw constituency in the Wafonian Republican Parliament elects six members using a fully open list. Three lists, containing twenty-two candidates in total, are vying for its seats. in this example, 40,500 votes are cast. The totals for each candidate and party are:In the first step, seats are apportioned between the parties in according to their vote share. When using the D'Hondt method of rounding, the Social Democratic Party wins 3 seats, the NCP 2, and the LCC 1.
The SDP seats go to its most popular three candidates by vote tally: Megan Vargas, Matt Wright, and Pranav Kapoor. The NCP seats go to its top two candidates, Janek Campbell-Pitt and Tricia Chapman. The LCC seat goes to Sam Miller.
By country
Argentina
From 1912 to 1948, and from 1958 and 1962, Argentine voters had the possibility of crossing out or adding candidates to the electoral lists of the legislative elections.Austria
Panachage was used in Austria until the 1970s.Belgium
Until the parliamentary elections of 1900, panachage was allowed in provincial and parliamentary elections in Belgium. Candidates were placed on lists in alphabetical order of surname.Municipal elections were held under the panachage system starting in 1932 until passage of the 5 July 1976 Law. This change was adopted before the first elections following the 1976 communes merger, which reduced the number of Belgian communes from 2,359 to 596. Bills were introduced in 1995 and 1999 by senators from the Volksunie to reinstitute panachage, but they were never put to votes.
Ecuador
In the Ecuadorian parliamentary elections, voters have as many votes as there are seats to be filled. They may use their votes to support candidates across party lines.El Salvador
adopted an open list proportional system for the 2012 legislative elections. It introduced panachage for the 2015 elections:"For the first time, voters will be able to select individual candidates from any party rather than being forced to vote for a single party with an established list of candidates. Voters can still opt to simply choose a party."
France
Since 2014, voters in municipal elections in communes having fewer than 1,000 inhabitants have been able to cast ballot papers indicating their preference for candidates either listed or named individually, and, in addition, cross out if they so wish the names of one or more candidates. The number of candidates selected by a voter must not, however, exceed the total number of available seats.Until a reform effective 17 May 2013, voters had been able to write in the names of other, unlisted eligible citizens. But now all nominations must be filed in advance with the prefecture or sub-prefecture, and voters may no longer add names on election day.