The Quota Borda System or Quota Preference Score is a voting system that was devised by the British philosopher Michael Dummett and first published in 1984 in his book, Voting Procedures, and again in his Principles of Electoral Reform.
If proportionality is required in a Borda count election, a quota element should be included into the counting procedure, which works best in multi-member constituencies of either 4 or 6 members. The threshold used is the Droop quota; in a single-seat constituency, the quota is an absolute majority, i.e., (50% + 1) of the valid vote; in a 2-seat constituency, it is (33% + 1); in a 3-seat, it's (25% + 1); and in a 4-seat, it is (20% + 1) of the valid vote.
The four-seat selection goes as follows;
Stage i) Any candidate gaining a quota of 1st preferences is elected.
Stage ii) Any pair of candidates gaining 2 quotas is elected. (A pair of candidates, Ms J and Mr M, say, gains 2 quotas when that number of voters vote either 'J-1, M-2' or 'M-1, J-2'.) If seats still remain to be filled, then, ignoring all those candidates who have already been elected;
Stage iii) Any pair of candidates gaining 1 quota gains 1 seat, and the seat is given to the candidate of that pair who has the higher Modified Borda Count score.
Stage iv) Any seats still remaining are given to those candidates with the highest Modified Borda Count scores.
Famous quotes containing the words quota and/or system:
“Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Each generation’s job is to question what parents accept on faith, to explore possibilities, and adapt the last generation’s system of values for a new age.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)