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Part of the Politics series
Electoral systems
Single-winner/majoritarian Plurality First-past-the-post Plurality at-large (plurality block voting) General ticket (party block voting) Multi-round voting Two-round Exhaustive ballot Primary election Nonpartisan unified top-four Majority at-large (two-round block voting) Ranked / preferential systems Instant-runoff (alternative vote) Contingent vote Coombs' method Condorcet methods (Copeland's, Dodgson's, Kemeny–Young, Minimax, Nanson's, ranked pairs, Schulze, Alternative Smith) Positional voting (Borda count, Nauru/Dowdall method) Bucklin voting Oklahoma primary electoral system Preferential block voting Cardinal / graded systems Score voting Approval voting Combined approval voting Unified primary Usual judgment Satisfaction approval voting Majority judgment STAR voting
Proportional representation Party-list Electoral list open list closed list local lists Apportionment Sainte-Laguë D'Hondt Huntington–Hill Hare Droop Imperiali Hagenbach-Bischoff National remnant Highest averages Largest remainder Proportional forms of ranked voting Single transferable vote Gregory Wright Schulze STV CPO-STV Ranked party list PR Spare vote Proportional forms of cardinal voting Proportional approval voting Sequential proportional approval voting Method of Equal Shares Phragmen's voting rules Biproportional apportionment Fair majority voting Weighted voting Direct representation Interactive representation Liquid democracy
Mixed systems By type of representation Mixed-member majoritarian Mixed-member proportional Non-compensatory mixed systems Parallel voting Majority bonus Compensatory mixed systems Additional member system Mixed single vote (positive vote transfer) Scorporo (negative vote transfer) Mixed ballot transferable vote Alternative Vote Plus Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional
Other systems and related theory Semi-proportional representation Single non-transferable vote Limited voting Cumulative voting Binomial voting Other systems Multiple non-transferable vote Double simultaneous vote Proxy voting Delegated voting Indirect STV Liquid democracy Random selection (sortition, random ballot) Supermajority Social choice theory Arrow's theorem Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem Public choice theory Veto Players List of electoral systems List of electoral systems by country Comparison of electoral systems Effects of electoral systems Political fragmentation Political efficacy Voter turnout
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This is a list of electoral systems by country in alphabetical order. An electoral system is used to elect national legislatures and heads of state.

Maps

Head of state

Lower (or unicameral) house

Upper house

Single-winner system / single-member constituencies (non-proportional)   First past the post/single member plurality (FPTP/SMP)   Two-round system (TRS)   Instant-runoff voting (IRV) Multi-member constituencies, majoritarian (non-proportional)   Block voting (BV) or mixed FPTP and BV   Party block voting (PBV) or mixed FPTP and PBV Multi-member constituencies, semi-proportional   Limited voting (LV) or cumulative voting   Single non-transferable vote (SNTV) or mixed FPTP and SNTV   Modified Borda count Multi-member constituencies, proportional   Party-list proportional representation (list PR)   Single transferable vote (STV)

Mixed non-compensatory (semi-proportional)   Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM): parallel voting (FPTP and list PR)   Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM): parallel voting (TRS and list PR)   Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM): parallel voting (BV/PBV and list PR)   List PR with plurality bonus (MBS)   Parallel voting (SNTV and list PR) Mixed compensatory (proportional or semi-proportional)   Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) with compensation / scorporo   Additional member system / semi-proportional MMP   Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP)   Majority jackpot (majority of seats reserved for largest party/coalition)

Indirect election   Election by legislature   Election by electoral college or local legislatures   Partly elected by electoral college or local legislatures, partly appointed by head of state Other   No election (e.g. Monarchy)   Appointed by head of state   Varies by federal states or constituencies   No information/Unicameral legislature

Electoral systems by country

Key

Type of system

Type of representation:

Number of winners in a contest—whether single or multiple (more than one)

single winner (single office at-large such as mayor, or chamber filled by single winner contests in districts dividing electorate. System used is usually one of FPTP, TRS, instant-runoff voting.

multiple winners (block voting, STV, limited voting)

Type of electoral method

Type of elections

direct elections

indirect (by legislature(s) and/or electoral college),

no election (chosen by a single person, or other rules e.g. hereditary)

Winning formula:

majoritarian/plurality (body elected in winner-take-all districts e.g. FPTP, TRS, block voting),

majoritarian (Instant-runoff voting, TRS),

proportional (body elected by STV or party-list PR),

semi-proportional (e.g. SNTV, LV).

Mixed systems use two or more of these methods, and produce chamber where different members are elected through two or more different election methods. (Mixed Member Proportional elects members through both first past the post and proportional.) Parallel voting systems, such as used in Egypt, are examples of mixed systems.

Seats per district or contest

Some elections fill all the seats in the chamber (Netherlands, Israel). Most times the electorate is split into a number of electoral districts where all the district members are elected at one time. In some elections, there is one person elected per district. In others, there are many people elected per district (sometimes all districts have same number of seats; other systems use districts with varying number of seats.) (Proportional representation and STV depends on use of a contest that fills multiple seats at one time.) Electoral districts can have different names, see list of electoral districts by nation. Some election systems see half or a third of the members elected at one time (staggered terms).:

Election systems can use one or more layers.

First past the post elections use just one layer. : MMP (an example of a mixed system listed above) uses both district elections and overall pooling of votes, usually where voters cast both a district vote and a party vote. In Demark's mixed member system, a single vote is used both for election of the district member and of an at-large party seat.: Some city election systems, such as City of Thunder Bay (Canada) and Nelson (New Zealand), use both ward elections and at-large district to elect members of city council. At-large contests elect multiple members so make either list, PR, STV or block voting possible. As well, multi-member wards, such as used in Nelson, make either list PR, STV or block voting possible. Single-winner ward contests usually use the first past the post, instant-runoff voting or the two-round system.:

Total number of seats

the number of representatives elected to the body in total. (general rule is number of members in the lower house is the cube root of the total population.)^[1]

Electoral threshold

see Electoral threshold

Type of vote used

First past the post uses single X voting.

Block voting uses multiple X voting, same as number of seats to fill.

STV and Instant-runoff voting use ranked votes.

List PR uses X voting.

Limited voting uses multiple X voting, not as many as number of seats to fill.

List