Reform Act 1832

Historical Context of Voting Rights

• Citizens in England could vote from 1265, although the number was very limited.
• The Bill of Rights (1689) established elections as central to representing the general will, but elections were often corrupt and controlled by wealthy landowners.
• After 1688, being a parliamentarian became more prestigious due to parliamentary supremacy.
• "County" seats were represented by the wealthiest landowners.
• "Borough" seats were in towns and intended to represent 'normal' taxpayers, but some had expensive franchise requirements, and 'rotten' boroughs were tiny and won by whoever could pay the most.
• Massive overrepresentation of wealthy landowners and underrepresentation of industrial towns led to the Reform Act 1832.

Reform Act 1832

• Reduced malapportionment and extended voting rights to tenants and small landholders.
• Excluded the very poor from voting rights.
• Retained the borough/country system with varying numbers of members based on seat size.

Chartist Movement and the People's Charter (1838)

• Demanded universal suffrage for all sane, non-felon British men aged 21 and over.
• Proposed dividing the House of Commons into 300 equal districts.
• Advocated for annual elections.
• Called for secret ballots.
• Sought to remove property ownership requirements for MPs.
• Recommended a salary for MPs.
• The demands were not taken seriously at the time.

Universal Suffrage

• British men could vote regardless of property ownership by 1918, and property-owning women were also enfranchised.
• Women had been voting in New Zealand since 1893, South Australia since 1894, and Australia since 1902.
• Swiss women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971.
• Saudi Arabia allowed women to vote in 2015.
• The push for the right to vote remains an ongoing battle.

Other Franchise Restrictions

• Literacy requirements for voting or citizenship, as seen in Australia's White Australia policy.
• Restrictions based on race, including in Australia.
• Citizenship requirements, such as permanent residents voting in New Zealand.
• Imprisonment policies, like in Australia, where serving more than three years disqualifies voting.
• Age restrictions, with a few countries allowing 16-year-old voters.
• Mental disability ("unsound mind" provision in Australia).
• Poll and property taxes, used from the 1870s to 1965 to disenfranchise African Americans until the Civil Rights Act in the US.

Disenfranchisement After Enfranchisement

• Women in Kuwait lost their voting rights from 1985 to 2005.
• Women (property owners) in New Jersey lost the right to vote from 1807 to 1920.
• Black South Africans were disenfranchised from 1936 to 1993.
• Some Black Americans lost voting rights from 1807 to 1965.
• Voting rights were curtailed in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler.

The Electoral Imperative

• Some people gain or lose the right to vote for ideological reasons.
• Sometimes, it is purely strategic for politicians.
• Paul Keating's government considered extending voting rights to all prisoners.
• The Howard government tried unsuccessfully to remove all voting rights for prisoners and decrease the enrollment window before an election.
• Governments try to manipulate the electoral system to maximize their electoral trends.

Current Democratic Norms

• All citizens 18 and older can vote, including non-residents.
• Limitations exist based on imprisonment, mental capacity, and non-resident dual citizenship.
• Eligibility and access are distinct issues.
• Even democracies limit the franchise as much as possible through voter suppression.

Eligibility to Nominate or Vote

• Usually mirrors the electoral franchise, with more restrictions on non-citizens and non-residents.
• Section 44 of the Australian Constitution prohibits someone with allegiance to a foreign country from running for parliament, along with public servants, traitors, and bankrupts.
• New Zealand permanent residents can vote but not run for office.

Electoral Systems in History

• Sparta: Candidates were paraded before male citizens, and judges chose the top 5 based on cheers, a system called the "shout".
• Britain pre-Reform Act: "First past the post" system, electing one or more members based on the number of votes without secrecy.
• US (and Britain post-Reform): "First past the post" system, electing one member with varying degrees of secrecy.

Modern Electoral Systems

• Countries implement electoral systems based on their goals, such as:
  • Stability of government.
  • Ensuring representation of disparate groups.
  • Avoiding concentration of power in a small elite.
  • Simplicity for voters.
  • Sidelining or centering specific groups.

Responsiveness vs. Stability

• Political institutions can be either agile and responsive or stable and slow, but not both.
• One Australian government has been dismissed by the executive.
• Belgium once went 541 days without a government.

Consensual Electoral Systems

• Elections are designed to produce many small parties who need to work together.
• Legislative decisions are "consensual," requiring agreement among many parties.
• Ideal for very diverse societies like Belgium, Fiji, Switzerland, and Brazil, but not suitable everywhere.
• Belgium has ethnic groups like Flemings, Walloons, and Germans, requiring a system that ensures most people agree with the social contract.
• Currently, there are 12 parties represented in the Belgian Lower House.

How to Create a Consensual System

• The % of votes required to win a seat is key.
• The lower the electoral threshold, the more diverse the legislature.
• In a single-member seat, the winner needs 50% +1 of all votes.
• In a seat with 12 members, the winner needs approximately 7.7% +1 votes.
• The ideal outcome is % vote share = % seat share.
• A 50%+1 vote share in a single-member district equals 100% seat share.

Canberra as a Single District Example

• In the 2022 election, there were 93,990 votes cast in the Division of Canberra.
• With one member elected, the winner needed 46,996 votes (50%+1).
• If electing 12 members, a winner would need 7,231 votes.

The 'Division of ACT'

• Imagine the ACT as one large electorate with three members and 286,198 votes.
• The electoral threshold or quota is 25%+1.
• 71,550 votes are required to win a quota.
• The larger the number of members per seat, the more diversity in parliament.

Turning Votes into (Multi-Member) Seats

• One problem of 'first past the post' for multi-member seats.
• Methods currently popular:
  • Open party-list: Voters can vote for anyone.
  • Closed party-list: Parties give you the list of candidates in the order they want you to elect them.

Discarded failures:

• First past the post.
• First past the post with block voting.

The complexity problem:

• Both voting and counting complicated.
• Maximising proportionality requires long instructions.
• Open list systems like the ACT are more complicated than "closed list" systems.

Simple Stability: Majoritarian Systems

• Single-member districts (one party wins the entire government).
• Benefits for simplicity, accountability, and stability.
• Majoritarianism and wasted votes.

The Responsiveness Trade-Off

• If your party is in opposition, you are effectively unrepresented.
• If you're on the left-right tails (or not on the spectrum), you are effectively unrepresented.

AUSTRALIA

• Stability in the HOR and responsiveness in the Senate.
• HOR is Majoritarian.
• Senate is consensual.

Final Decision: Should Voting Be Compulsory or Not?

• Compulsory voting is not normal, with only 21 countries having it currently.
• Promotes stability and moderation; the 'median voter theorem' suggests the voter in the middle of the left-right spectrum decides elections.
• Compels people to vote even when feeling unrepresented, risking resentment.
• Most countries prioritize the freedom not to vote over the civic obligation to vote.

Summary of Electoral Systems

• Decisions like electoral franchise and system can be lofty when creating a country.
• Once in power, governments and politicians can rig the rules to suit themselves.
• Electoral franchises tend to increase because there are political costs to taking away the right to vote.
• Electoral systems can have huge effects on representation, social cohesion, and power-sharing (but also risk being abused once in power).
• Electoral systems are a centrally important aspect of any polity.
• In the Australian context, the electoral system explains much of the country's stability, centrist policies, and conservative political culture.
• How we vote is shaped by ballot papers, counting/allocation methods, and when/where/why we vote.
• Electoral systems often need to balance competing goals.
• The electoral system dictates how many parties, the kind of people who stand for election, and the kinds of policies are produced.
• In Australia, elections occur on Saturdays, lines are short, and ample voting opportunities are available beforehand.
• Another fundamental feature of Australia's electoral system is that both the Prime Minister and the opposition leader are ideologically centrist.

Compulsory and Voluntary Voting

• Australian votes are required by law to both enroll to vote and cast a ballot in all federal and state elections.
• In 1924 the parliament of Australia amended the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to make voting compulsory and allowed the federal government to penalize enrolled voters who fail to cast a ballot ($160 in 2018 and $20 in 2019).
• "It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election"
• The electoral commissioner must, after polling date at each election, prepare a list of names and addresses of electors who appear to have failed to vote at the election.
• Each DRO (division retiring officer) must send a penalty notice or arrange for a penalty notice within the period of 3 months to each elector whose name appears on the list.
• This legislative measure was passed to address declining voter turnout in general elections, with fewer than 60% of registered electors casting a ballot at the 1922 Australian federal election.
• The current turnout is 92%.
• The Australian government has consistently legislated elections to make them as easy as possible.
• Australian Election Study data since 1967 reveals remarkably high levels of support for compulsory voting within Australia.

How Compulsory is Compulsory Voting?

• Two means of easily abstaining from casting a valid vote:

  • Attend a polling booth, receive a ballot paper, and deposit the paper in the ballot box without writing a valid vote (many Australians do this intentionally).
  • Leaving the ballot blank or making the paper invalid for voters with poor literacy or English.

• The Commonwealth Election Act 1918 requires voters to deposit a ballot paper.

• 'Blank Ballot' argument: Leaving a blank ballot is viewed as a legitimate form of political expression, but voters can be penalized if they confess to it on social media.

• 'Valid vote' argument: The legislation requires voters to intend to cast a valid vote, expressing their preference for candidates.

• The second means of abstaining is to not enroll to vote.

• Electoral enrollment is compulsory under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, which mandates eligible voters to register and maintain their enrollment.

• Since 2012 the AEC has has legislative power to directly update the electron toll, this allows them to identify eligible voters and automatically add individual to the roll, and these individuals have 28 days in which to object.

• These powers have DIMINISHED Australians' ability to HIDE from the AEC and from having to vote.

• Direct updating reversed a trend of declining voter enrolment, with approximately two -thirds of all electron enrolment in Australia occurs via direct update of roll.

Majoritarian and Consensual Electoral Systems

• Three types of electoral systems of family: Majoritarian, mixed and consensual.

Majoritarian or Winner Takes All Systems

• In the Australian federal election we vote for candidates of two houses, the party or group that wins the most seats forms the government.
• Australia's system elects one person to represent each electoral division, resulting in the HOR has with a distinct magnitude of one one member per division. The second placed candidate wins nothing.
• Two specific election systems produce majoritarian government:
  • Plurality or 'first past the post' voting: voters choose their favorite candidate among all listed, without ranking. PRO: simplicity inclusion in voters. CON: disproportionate election outcome of any voting system. The votes can be wasted.
  • Preferential voting: voters mark their preferred candidate and rank the others, less common. Voter's rank can be seen as an alternative. PRO: very few votes are vaster. CON: complicated electron system DISADVANTAGE for voters from a non - english -speaking background and those with low literacy.
• Candidates benefit from working together to exclude common rivals; they might withdraw from an election or decided not to nominate in the first place.
• DURVERGER'S LAW predicts that majoritarian voting methods lead to stable two party systems.
• Compulsory voting means voters are incentivised to vote, even though the parties they end up voting for are a long distance from their own positions.

Consensual Systems

• More than one person elected by the voters to represent their electron division.
• District magnitude: the number of representatives in each district
• District magnitudes have a large effect on electron outcomes.
• According to Duverger's Law, parties with ideological positions they might either merge or withdraw from elections to avoid stealing votes each other.
• In multi-member districts, ideologically similar parties can both nominate for election and plausibly be elected.
• in the 26th 16 ACT election, the final distribution of seats was 12 to the ALP 11 to the liberals and 2 to the greens. The ALP and Green had a coalition making 14 majority over 11.
• When parties don't share ideologies they're more likely to break the coalition agreement.

Electron Systems Producing Consensual Outcomes

• Party list voting:
  • Parties are allocated a percentage of seats based on the percentage of votes they receive. The closer the percentage of votes want the percentage of seats one the proportional system is. Depending on whether an electoral threshold is used in a party system, parties might be required to win a certain percentage of votes before they awarded a seat.
• Closed party list system:
  • Parties determine the order of candidates on the list the voters vote for the party.
• Open party list:
• Voters vote for their candidate in a list and often open list are randomised that parties cannot indicate any preference for individual candidates each word, giving voters accountability for representatives rather than parties.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

• The key feature of STV is that voters can rank individual candidates.
• Make sure that every vote counts as much as possible.
• Quota: in order to get elected a candidate needs to reach a certain amount of votes and if they exceed that quota their extra votes get transferred to the next preference.
• Australian Senate quota is calculated by: The number of formal ballot papers cast/The number of senators to be elected plus one rounded down plus one and what additional to quota are transferred it a reduced value calculated as additional votes/number of votes for candidate.

Mixed Systems:

• Successfully combined elements of majoritarian and consensual electoral systems.
• Combined majoritarian and consensual electoral systems.

Electron Systems for Divided Societies:

• Politicians can play the ethnic card during elections to mobilize voters.
• Electoral systems play a powerful role in conflict and democracy management.
• "Electoral engineering" has become increasingly attractive for those attempting to build democracy in divided societies.
• The consociational model argues that some form of proportional representation (PR) is needed in case of deep -rooted ethnic divisions because it emphasizes the need to develop mechanism, for elite power sharing. PR is a key element of consociational approaches.
• The consocioationalists argue that party-list PR is the best choice because enable all significant ethic groups including minoritie s to establish themselves into ethnically based parties and thereby gain representation in the parliament.

The "Preferential" Option

• Critics argue the best way to mitigate the harmful patterns of divided societies is not to encourage the formation of ethnic parties, but rather to utilise electoral systems that encourage cooperation and accommodation among rival groups and therefore reduce the salience of ethnicity.
• Reciprocal vote polling, bargaining, and accommodation across lines should be enacted for example presidential elections in Nigeria require winning candidates to gain support from different regions.

Reciprocal dependence on votes from groups can be achieved through:

• The preferential electron system that enables voters to rank order their choices among different parties or candidates on the ballot paper.
• all preferential elector systems share a common distinguishing factor: They enable electors to indicate how they would vote if their favoured candidate was defeated and they had to choose among those remaining.

ALTERNATIVE VOTE

• A majoritarian system used in single-member electoral district that requires the vending candidate to gain not just a plurality but an absolute majority of votes.
• candidates is eliminated until the majority winner emerges.

SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE

• Voters rank candidates and transferred at a reduced value The counts can help parties and candidates in pulling across ethnic line.
• Candidates may need to move to the centre on policy issues to attract these voters
• Negotiations between candidates could increase multi ethnic Alliances.
• This is centripetalism, the parties towards moderate compromising policies and discovering reinforce the centre of a deeply divided political spectrum.
• Centripetalism term for electoral incentives, bargaining for politician and multi ethnic parties for the voters and politicians support.

Five Cases

NORTHERN IRELAND

• Best example of institutions which encourage accommodation in a society why the use of preferential electoral system at crucial 1998 elections held under the Good Friday process.
• One of the rules imposed was power sharing elections held under Single transferable vote rules. This transfer assisted everyone to participate.

ESTONIA

• Estonia split between a majority 60% Estonian vision community and minority 35% Russian speaking one And single transferable voting system for its first post Soviet National election in 1990 but little happened because Russians predominantly vote for Russians and Estonians vote for Estonians.
• The STV system did help develop an aggregative multi ethnic party system.

AUSTRALIA

• Preferential voting systems, Away from extremes The election of government has the majority support. Has benefitted. Partner has made great coalitions.