Apportionment methods

Most democratic countries use election methods to transform election results into whole numbers which usually give the number of seats in a legislative body the parties obtained. Which election method does this best can be specified by measuring the error between the allocated result and the ideal p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Niemeyer, Horst F, Niemeyer, Alice C
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 23.10.2015
Subjects
Elections
Error analysis
Error functions
Mathematics - History and Overview
Methods
Redistricting
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Most democratic countries use election methods to transform election results into whole numbers which usually give the number of seats in a legislative body the parties obtained. Which election method does this best can be specified by measuring the error between the allocated result and the ideal proportion. We show how to find an election method which is best suited to a given error function. We also discuss several properties of election methods that have been labelled paradoxa. In particular we explain the highly publicised ``Alabama'' Paradox for the Hare/Hamilton method and show that other popular election methods come with their very own paradoxa.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1510.07528