According to this plan, the unit of representation, the quota of
electors who would be entitled to have a member to themselves, would
be ascertained by the ordinary process of taking averages, the
number of voters being divided by the number of seats in the House:
and every candidate who obtained that quota would be returned, from
however great a number of local constituencies it might be gathered.
The votes would, as at present, be given locally; but any elector
would be at liberty to vote for any candidate in whatever part of
the country he might offer himself. Those electors, therefore, who did
not wish to be represented by any of the local candidates, might aid
by their vote in the return of the person they liked best among all
those throughout the country who had expressed a willingness to be
chosen. This would, so far, give reality to the electoral rights of
the otherwise virtually disfranchised minority. But it is important
that not those alone who refuse to vote for any of the local
candidates, but those also who vote for one of them and are
defeated, should be enabled to find elsewhere the representation which
they have not succeeded in obtaining in their own district. It is
therefore provided that an elector may deliver a voting paper,
containing other names in addition to the one which stands foremost in
his preference. His vote would only be counted for one candidate;
but if the object of his first choice failed to be returned, from
not having obtained the quota, his second perhaps might be more
fortunate.
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