Limited Voting

Limited voting is a semi-proportional electoral system used in multi-member districts. Each voter receives a fixed number of votes that is smaller than the number of seats to be filled, and the candidates with the most votes win. By capping how many candidates a majority bloc can support, the system mechanically creates space for minority factions or parties to elect at least one representative, provided they coordinate their support.

The method sits between plurality block voting (where voters have as many votes as seats, typically producing a clean sweep for the largest bloc) and the single non-transferable vote, or SNTV, which is the special case in which each voter has exactly one vote in a multi-seat district. Political scientists generally classify limited voting as semi-proportional because it produces more proportional outcomes than plurality but does not guarantee proportionality the way party-list PR or STV does.

Key features and trade-offs:

• Threshold of exclusion depends on the ratio of votes to seats: the fewer votes per voter relative to seats, the easier it is for a minority to win one.
• Strategic coordination matters. Parties must avoid running too many candidates and splitting their vote, and supporters may need to be told which co-partisans to back.
• Ballot is simple: voters just mark names, with no ranking or party list.

Limited voting has a long history in the United Kingdom, where it was used for some three-member parliamentary boroughs under the Reform Act 1867 (voters had two votes) before being abolished in 1885. In the United States, it has been adopted by various local jurisdictions, often as a remedy in Voting Rights Act litigation to address vote dilution against racial minorities without resorting to single-member districts. Spain uses a limited-vote arrangement for most Senate constituencies, where voters typically choose three candidates for four seats.