What tpes of voting systems are there?

Answer 1

There are three basic "families" of voting systems: plurality/majority, proportional representation, and semiproportional. All the voting systems within a particular family tend to produce the same kind of political results and tend to resemble each other in terms of their general political advantages and disadvantages. The main political differences are therefore between the families, not within them. The links below will take you to descriptions of specific voting systems, including sample ballots. (Because of the ballots and other graphics on these pages, they are somewhat slow to download. Please be patient.)Plurality/majority systems. These are the winner-take-all systems that are usually used in the United States. They include the common plurality systems like the single-member district plurality vote and at large voting, and less common majority systems like the two-round runoff and the instant run-off.Proportional representation systems. These voting systems are used by most other advanced Western democracies and are designed to ensure that parties are represented proportionally in the legislature. They include party list systems, mixed-member proportional, and the single transferable vote.Semiproportional systems. Though relative rare worldwide, these systems have garnered some interest in the United State. They tend to produce more proportional results than plurality/majority systems, but less proportional results than fully proportional systems. They include cumulative voting and limited voting.