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Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR Voting) is a new voting system specifically intended for the election of the House of Commons in the UK. It is similar to AMS - the Additional Member System used in Scotland, and MMP - the Mixed Member Proportional system used in Germany, but has important advantages .
For questions about Administration and Practicality
One MP in each constituency – No change to existing constituencies. Boundaries are unchanged.
Simple and quick voting and counting - for minimal administrative change and low ongoing costs
Party Proportional voting - with minimal burden on electoral administrators with low introductory costs.
Every vote in every constituency makes a difference - with only minimal additional administrative effort.
DPR Voting is a new system. Don't ignore it. Its simplicity and associated benefits are too good to disregard.
For any democratic voting system, simplicity linked to transparency are essential attributes.
Not every PR system is simple and transparent. Does the DPR Voting system address the problems with other PR systems?
Let's look at DPR Voting.
No change to single member constituencies
Electoral campaigns have two elements to them - the party campaign, and the campaign for the individual candidate. With FPTP this can cause confusion. DPR Voting works with our existing single member constituencies. Other PR systems don't.
Introducing DPR Voting would not require any boundary changes, and so would be cheaper and quicker to introduce.
Party campaigning
DPR Voting encourages the party political campaign to be conducted nationwide because every vote in every constituency makes a difference to the party percentage. It doesn't matter where each vote is cast.
Candidate campaigns
The vote for the candidate is entirely local, and not dependent on party allegiance. Popular hardworking and respected local candidates can be elected regardless of the popularity of their party, if the electorate so chooses. This gives more freedom to the electorate to (re-)elect their local champions.
Voting and Counting
Voting is simple and is very similar to the existing FPTP system, but with two ballot papers for each voter - one for the candidate, the other for the Party
The Candidate ballot paper is essentially the same as the current FPTP ballot paper. There is no change to how you vote or how the votes are counted and how the winner is declared.
The Party ballot paper simply lists the names of the parties competing in the election (with logos). The voter chooses one party to support. These ballot papers are counted in a similar manner but their significance only becomes apparent when the numbers are aggregated across the country. This makes tactical voting redundant, so in this respect it is simpler for the voter.
Election Night
Election night with FPTP is a TV spectacular. It celebrates democracy and engages the electorate with the results of the votes cast. The success of the event depends in part on the speed of the counting. Some PR systems could not support a TV spectacular.
With DPR Voting, counting of the candidate votes is quick and simple. The ritual declarations, individual candidates successes and failures will be just as exciting, and maybe more so - there won't be predictably 'safe' seats for candidates.
Counting of the party votes will take longer. This need not detract from the drama of the night. If anything it would add significance to the exit poll which accurately predicts the support of the parties in percentages. Experience shows that the exit poll has limited significance under FPTP. For the purposes of the TV event, the drama is about the successes or failures of local champions and political 'stars' and in this way DPR Voting would be similarly exciting and the counting could be as quick as under FPTP.
With some PR systems the count is very much more complicated and slower. Where the electoral system requires larger multi-member constituencies, the Election Night TV event would not work, and the election results would take much longer to declare.
Parliament
For votes in parliament, where the voting was along party lines, the votes for the MPs of each party would simply be factored to take account of the party's relative success in the General Election 'Party' vote. Electronic voting, while not essential, would save time and improve parliamentary administration efficiency.
The factoring of the votes cast by MPs in parliamentary divisions (for votes on party political issues) is the key to how DPR Voting balances the votes for the various parties with the number of elected MPs in the House of Commons. Where an issue is considered to be a matter of individual conscience for the MPs, votes are ‘One MP one Vote' as at present. Administratively, an electronic counting system for parliamentary votes could be beneficial, and is probably long overdue, but is not necessary.
Introducing the change - the administration
Unlike most other systems, DPR Voting would be easy and cheap to introduce because the campaigning and voting requires the least administrative change. It would also feel familiar to voters used to the First Past the Post system.