St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-28
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTA-
TION

system Oh elections Cndt VIII give to
minorities a voice in government
that the present system denies them.
At present the Democrats of Min
nesota, casting usually 100000 votes,
have-no representation in congress;
while the Republicans, normally a
plurality party, have all the repre-
sentatives. In the electoral college
in 1892 the nine votes of Minnesota
were cast for the Republican candi-
date, although he received but 122,-
1913 votes to the 211, 1916 cast for other
candidates. This is minority, not
majority rule; and it is the preven-
ton of such conditions and results
that the league is working for
One difficulty in the way of more
efficient action has been the inability
Of the advocates of proportional rep
resentation to agree on any system
among the many that have been de-
Vised. 1t is expected that there will
come an agreement out of the con-
ference now in progress. There will
then remain the much more difficult
task of securing it's adoption. In the
states where one or the other party
has majority that it can safely de-
pend on, it will be reluctant to yield
any of its power to the minority.
In the states where the maiorities
are inconstant, given now to one and
now to another party, there might
be found a greater willingness to
adopt system that would insure a
representation proportioned to vot-
ing strength. 1t is manifest that it
is in such communities as New York
and Ohio, and one or two other I'M
stable states, that the work must
be done. Congress, too, with its I'M
certainty Of partisan tenure and it's
constitutional power to regulate the
"times, places and manner" of elect
ing representatives, might prove a
fertile field for cultivation.
For twenty years Illinois has used
the proportional plan in electing
members of the house of representa-
tives Of the state. The districts are
apportfoned so as to give three
members to each. Each elector can
cast three votes. He can give them
all to one candidate; divide them
among two, or give each one. This
insures one member to the minority
party. While there are some defects,
some wasting OF votes, still the plan
works SO satisfactorily that there
has never been any effort to change
it and return to the old plan. Sew
eral Of the Swiss cantons have adopt
ed a plan that is better than the
Illinois method. Representatives are
elected at large. Any group of vot-
ers can make nominations. A voter
has as many votes as there are can
didateS to be elected and can give
them to one, more or all the can
didates, as he wishes. All the votes
to which a voter is entitled are
counted for the party to which the
candidates he voted for belong After
the election the total party vote in
the district is divided by the num-
Der of representa- tives to be elected,
and the quotient is the quota of
representation Then the total vote
Of each party is divided by this quota
and this gives the number of repre-
sentatives the party is entitled to.
If the full number is not thus OBJ
tanned it is filled by giving one more
to the largest remainders.
Applied to the state of Minnesota
and its presidential vote in the last
election, and giving to each voter but
one vote, as now, for each presidential
elector, we would have had the fol-
| lowing result: The sum of the party
votes was 253,O 56, and the number of
electors to be chosen was 8. Dividing
the former by the latter gives the
quota of 2S,117 votes for each elector
| Now, dividing the votes of the re-
spective parties by this number, we
| get the following results:
Party Re-
Vote Electors. mainder
| Rep .122S23 10,355
| Dem .IOO,JN0 lb,ooS
|