General ticket


The general ticket or party block voting, 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.

Singapore

In Singapore, the general ticket system, locally known as the, elects by far most members of the Parliament of Singapore from multi-member districts known as group representation constituencies, on a plurality basis. This operates in parallel with ordinary single-member district and nominations. This system is moderated by a requirement for racial diversity; every candidate "team" must include at least one member from a minority ethnic group. According to the government, this serves to enshrine minority representation in Parliament.

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.

Superposition

Countries using party block voting in parallel with proportional representation.

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 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.

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. 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.
CongressDatesState and
number of representatives
1st1789–1791Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania
2nd1791–1793Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire
3rd1793–1795Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
4th and 5th1795–1799Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
6th1799–1801Connecticut, Georgia, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
7th1801–1803Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
8th1803–1805Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Tennessee
9th to 12th1805–1813Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Jersey, Rhode Island
13th1813–1815Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
14th to 16th1815–1821Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
17th1821–1823Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
18th1823–1825Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
19th1825–1827Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
20th1827–1829Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
21st and 22nd1829–1833Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
23rd and 24th1833–1837Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
25th and 26th1837–1841New Hampshire, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island
27th1841–1843Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island
28th1843–1845New Hampshire, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi
29th1845–1847Iowa, New Hampshire, Missouri, Mississippi
30th1847–1849Wisconsin
31st to 34th1849–1857California
35th to 37th1857–1863California, Minnesota
38th to 42nd1863–1873California
43rd to 47th1873–1883Florida, Kansas
48th1883–1885Maine
51st and 52nd1889–1893South Dakota
53rd to 57th1893–1903South Dakota, Washington
58th to 60th1903–1909North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington
61st1909–1911North Dakota, South Dakota
62nd1911–1913North Dakota, New Mexico, South Dakota
63rd1913–1915Idaho, Montana, Utah
64th1915–1917Idaho, Montana
65th to 72nd1917–1933Idaho, Montana
73rd1933–1935Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia
74th to 77th1935–1943North Dakota
78th to 80th1943–1949Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota
81st to 87th1949–1963New Mexico, North Dakota
88th1963–1965Alabama, Hawaii, New Mexico
89th and 90th1965–1969Hawaii, New Mexico
91st1969–1971Hawaii