The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-07-06

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WEEKLY NEws-the Great Campaign Paper.
The Representation Of hIlnorities.
The irregularity and the injustice Of our
present representation system are both plain
and unmistakable, and the changing fortunes
of political parties give all of them, in turn
a bitter taste Of the power ola bare majority.
AS the laws now stand, majority Of one,
in the largest constituency, carries with it
| the entire control of the minority. The ma
iority of one will make laws and unmake
them, will take off one tax and put on
another more grievous, will act in all things
as though it were in very truth the repre-
sentative of the whole people And the evil
is aggravated by the system of party organi-
zation and party tickets now in common use.
The vote which elects one member OF the
party will, as general thing, elect oil the
rest-the majority ticket is elected through
out, and the minority ticket is as thoroughly
defeated.
| No one contests the rights of the majority,
under the existing laws, to have majority
of the representation. But it is argued,
and with reason, that minorities, also, have
their rights and it is the aim OF the more
advanced and thoughtful of the statesmen OF
the country to devise practical plan which
shall give minorities their just share OF rep
resentation without. encroaching upon the
Just preponderance cs sshc numerical majori-
ty. In short. the problem is to procure
Legislative body which, at the time of its elec-
ton, will faithfully represent the whole body
|.of electors; so that each elector may have
representative to whom he has given
authority to speak and act for him, and who
will represent on the floor Of the chamber
only as many votes as he has received. To
accomplish this end, six. general plans are
proposed:
l. More than ninety years ago the subject
OF minority representation was broached in
England, and bill was introduced by the
Duke of fRichmondi in 17s0, contained a clause
looking to the representation Of minorities.
In 1855 plan proposed by NJ. Androe was
introduced into the representative system OF
Denmark. In 1859 Mr. Hare published his
work on the election Of representatives,
which gave rise to many discussions in this
country, in Europe and in the British Colo
MES. The plan OF AR. Hare is called prefer
entta2 voting, and its operation is as fol-
lows.
SIT ascertalns the quota by dividing the
whole number of voters by the whole number
of representatives. Thus, If the whole number
of voters should be 100000, and the number of
representatives to be chosen 200, the quota OF
voters to each representative would be 1000.
Then the voter is to deposit at the polls vot-
ing paper, on which he shall have placed in
the order of his preference the names of the
candidates, or Of so many of them as nc
pleases. No vote is to be counted for more
than one candidate; any candidate receiving
1000 votes Is to be declared elected: if the can
didate first on voting paper fails to obtain
the quota, or has already obtaiued it, the vote
descends to the next In order of preference;
when candidate has obtained the quota, his
votes up to that number are to be laid aside,
and the remaining votes are to be counted for
the candidate next in order Of preference, and
SO on, till all the votes are appropriated and
the whole number OF representatives is OBJ
tanned. If there be not 200 persons credited
each with 1000 votes, and the representative
body is consequently deficient in number, the
deficiency is to be made up by taking the can
dldates who come nearest to the required
quota This method is called hy the Swiss re-
formers that of the electoral quotient lie quo
tient electoral.)
g A second plan is that of limited voting,
BY which is to be understood that of requir-
ing the votes to be cast for less number Of
candidates than the whole. Thus, ii the
number of voters were 1000, and the
number Of candidates to be elected from the
State, OF district ten, and each voter were
allowed to give only one vote for one candi-
date and 10000 votes were to elect, the re-
suit would be that every 10000 persons
might have representative If they would.
This plan is generally referred to in connec-
ton with.several candidates, rarely in con-
nection with single ones.
3. ''A third plan is that of substitute voting,
which permits candidates to casts anew the use
less votes given to them, and substitute third
person in their place. Thus, supposing again
the number of electors to be 100000, and OF
representatives 10, and 10000 votes to be sutli-
cient for election; and then supposing six can-
didates to have received each $4,000, that is.
90, 900 in all, and two others each 5000. Here
are 10000 surplus votes cast for the elected
candidates, and 10000 insufficient votes dlvid-
ed between two persons, so as to give neither
of them enough to elect him; the plan we are
speaking of allows the three elected candi-
dates to cast 90, 900 surplus votes, and the two
defeated candidates to cast 10000 insufficient
votes for new candidates. Those eight per-
SONS would substitute four other persons as
odidotn- tr ..,.noira t1,a An 0rn votoo anI