In addition to general voter education, there are particular challenges facing people voting for the first time in a new election system. This could happen within the normal course of events for young people or newly enfranchised people voting for the first time. Or it may be a result of changes in a country's constitution or electoral legislation.
Educators facing either of these situations will have to attend to explaining the electoral system. It may be necessary to reiterate the relationship between the vote and the system of democratic representation that is the outcome of the election both in general materials and special materials.
There are four general Electoral Systems that are described in that section. Each embraces its own educational challenges:
- First Past the Post Systems
- Proportional Representation Systems
- Preference Voting Systems
- Combination (Mixed) Systems
There are some general principles that must be followed, however, and each of the following sections provides information on these.
Education must assist voters in understanding:
- how to make up their mind about candidates
- how to cast their vote
- how their vote will make a difference to the result
- what the final outcome will look like
If the educational programme has to motivate a change in system, arguments may have to be marshalled for why the system has been changed as well as its efficacy. If the change has been democratically negotiated, this may be easier than if a significant proportion of the population feels that it has been done for political advantage of one or another political party. But the question of efficacy has to be addressed if educators have as one of their goals the enhancement of voter turnout.
First Past the Post Systems
First Past The Post, or FPTP, elections confront voters with a direct choice between a set of candidates in a geographic constituency. As a result, educators will find it relatively straightforward to address some questions, but may have more difficulty in helping people understand the relationship between their choices and performance in the elected assembly, the possibility of selecting a losing candidate and, therefore, the feeling of being unrepresented, and the manner in which the outcomes of the various constituencies affect the final result.
How Voters Make Up Their Minds About Candidates: Voter educators may not influence voters in selecting one or another candidate. But they are responsible for ensuring that voters understand that they will be approached by candidates or their representatives, that they will have to make a choice between candidates, and that these candidates may represent a political party or may be standing independently of a party. They will understand the imperative of recognising the names or symbols of local candidates in order to be able to select them when they go into the voting booth. Nonstatutory voter educators or civil society organisations may provide checklists of questions to ask a particular candidate or a set of normative criteria by which voters should evaluate candidates. Normative criteria, However, can easily be construed as partisan and probably should be avoided by those who commit themselves to a nonpartisan approach.
How Voters Cast Their Votes: Samples of ballot papers containing fictitious names and symbols may be shown to voters. These should approximate the final ballot and be clearly marked and explained as examples or samples. If previous elections have been run according to the same system then previous ballots may be used. If an election is conducted for a variety of levels of government or official posts simultaneously, then voters may have to become familiar with multiple ballot papers and their different appearance.
How Their Votes Affect the Results: FPTP systems have the advantage of being almost immediately decisive. The candidate with the most votes is elected. In some elections, a majority of votes may be required, and voters will then have to understand the concept of a first and second round of voting. But it is relatively easy to demonstrate the manner in which votes will be counted and then the local result will be announced. Metaphors that are particularly appropriate in this context are sporting ones. They have the benefit of communicating both the sense of winners and also of acceptance by losers, as well as the necessity of playing by the rules. If there are local traditions based on counting in constituencies and at a central counting station with the results being declared from that station, it may be possible to use recordings or photographs of the announcement process to illustrate the point.
What the Final Outcome Will Look Like: Voters need to understand the makeup of the assembly or of the position for which the election is being held. This is best done by a combination of illustrations, demonstrations, and diagrams. In FPTP elections, educators may want to use maps to show the particular successful candidate from each constituency taking up the allocated seat, and then the manner in which the balance of power in the assembly is established from the combination of all the separate local results.
General Strategies: FPTP elections lend themselves to mock election processes, and to voting for real but local issues in an organisation or institution. Classroom activities such as the election of class representatives for a council and voting for a local president have regularly used FPTP.
Proportional Representation Systems
Proportional systems (see PR Systems) rely heavily on the identity and profile of the party system. Conducting non-partisan education within this context, without appearing to favour a particular party, can be especially difficult. It certainly has an impact on preparation of materials and examples of results.
How to Make Up Their Mind About Contestants: Voters using a proportional system have to select a party. In order to do this they will be faced by party information and by one or more lists of candidates consisting of names which they may or not recognise. If they themselves are party members, they may have been involved in the party based selection processes to establish such a list, but it is unlikely that this will be the case for most voters. Educators will describe ways in which voters can recognise the various parties (through symbols, photographs of party leaders, colours or so on) and the sources of information that are available to them for obtaining information about these parties. They may be required to give a definition of a political party, and may have to explain this in terms of those parties which are registered to contest the election and those other organisations and associations in society which are not. In some instance, a number of political parties may form a coalition to contest the elections. If so, this will also need to be explained to voters. It may also be necessary to explain different sets of parties competing at different levels if separate elections are held simultaneously.
How to Cast Their Vote: Ballot papers in proportional systems vary greatly, from the long and picturesque South African 1994 ballot paper with its party name, symbol, and photograph of party leader to the small set of differently coloured separate ballots in Sweden. Samples of these may be produced for educational purposes which approximate the original - but without the detail which may make it possible for counterfeiting to take place. However, it is possible to prepare mock ups of ballot papers based on the principles enunciated in the particular electoral legislation. (It seems to be a general practice that mock ballots make use of mock party names and symbols - although care has to be taken when choosing these as they may have existing symbolic party references which are unknown to the educators.) Amongst the details that voters will want to know is the principle of the ordering of parties on a ballot paper, and therefore the manner in which they will find the party of their choice. However, educators will want to be careful about emphasising a particular party placement - this may rather be left to party organisers who have an interest in this and often use it as a tactic for their supporters. Educators will want to stick to the principles by which the ballot is constructed. There may well be a number of ballot papers. In this case, educators will have to draw the link between each of these and the assembly for which the vote is cast, and make sure that people can recognise the differences between them.
How Their Vote Will Make a Difference to the Result: In a proportional system, every vote contributes to the final weight of seats to be held by the party. This may be demonstrated best by actually counting votes in a mock election and then demonstrating how the result is arrived at. Metaphors which are useful in communicating the balance which is achieved when proportions of the total are distributed include all those in which there are ratios of a whole - parties at which food must be distributed, dams of water which are distributed to different size villages, pie charts, the handing out of food or goods, and so on. In selecting metaphors, educators will try to make use of those which are most common and meaningful to those being educated.
What the Final Outcome Will Look Like: Because of the importance of the whole in a proportional system - as opposed to a 'first past the post' system where the whole is built up of separate results - voters need to have an opportunity to visualise and consider the assembly or assemblies for which the elections are being held. They will also want to understand the existence of thresholds (if there are such - see Thresholds) and the step that this creates over which parties must leap before they enter the assembly. A number of simulated results could be developed which can be described pictorially or graphically. In some cases, comparative data from other countries may prove more valuable than attempting to use one's own country as the example.
General Strategies: Educators who are working with large groups of people can make use of this to divide people and then show the relationship between these groups and proportion. With substantial numbers they can also make use of actual ballots cast in mock elections to do the same with sets of paper (although this can take time). While there can be a temptation on the part of educators to discuss the detail of the particular proportional system chosen and the manner in which quotas and seats are calculated, this is best avoided. The objectives of the exercise should be carefully considered. This information may only be necessary in educational material for party agents or counting officials and it may not contribute substantially to the general understanding of proportionality which the ordinary voter requires.
Preference Voting Systems
Unlike first past the post and list proportional systems where the voter is expected to make a single choice, or occasionally another 'first' choice in constituencies with more than one allocated seat, preference voting requires voters to rank either all or a selection of the choices offered on a ballot.
As a result, attention will have to be given to the determination of the result from the options chosen by the voter and the possibility that the person will be confronted not with their first choice but with an apparent compromise.
How to Make Up Their Minds About Candidates : An advantage of the system is the ability for the voter to make more nuanced decisions about the candidates. They can be encouraged to weigh their preferences by starting with those they like best, and then through a series of gradations based on their own selection criteria, to those they want to rank lowest. Otherwise, selection remains either a choice between parties or individual candidates and general information about these can be given.
How Voters Cast Their Votes : Voters will be expected to place a series of marks on the ballot paper-- normally rank order numbers--although it is possible for those designing ballots to introduce other marking options. In any event, marking the ballot has to be explained, and if possible, practiced. This can be done with a range of examples chosen from other contexts. In Australia, for example, one pamphlet makes use of rock groups.
How Their Votes Affect the Results : The preferences that individual voters select have to be counted and pooled in a relatively complex set of operations that results in a final outcome. This counting and pooling process is best explained with examples that may have to be constructed in advance of any educational programme rather than 'on the spot' as may be possible with other systems. The pamphlet described above takes new young voters through the entire process step by step, explaining how each interim result is arrived at and the formulation for reaching the final outcome. It also compares this outcome with the one that would have been arrived at through a first past the post system so that the point of the preferential system can be enhanced. Metaphors that are appropriate to this particular system may be drawn from a range of ranking systems, such as choices between apparently equally important purchasing decisions, holiday destinations, and so forth. More important, it seems that the system is best explained by an emphasis on its merits and the reasons for its selection in that particular country environment. The preference system can be used to select members of various committees within an assembly, and thus classroom elections can be held that distribute people amongst various working groups for a class outing or project.
What the Final Outcome Will Look Like : Preferential systems make selections that are then aggregated (either along constituency or universal lines) to make up the final result. So the emphasis, once the principles of selection and counting have been established, reverts to the standard explanations contained in previous sections.
Combination (Mixed) Systems
Combination systems, also known as mixed systems, typically require voters to make at least two different types of choices--for a party and for a candidate. Such systems, therefore, require general explanations about first past the post and proportional systems as well as the manner in which these are combined in the particular country to achieve the resultant mix of seats.
Educators will want to explain the rationale behind the combined system choice, such as the mix of party accountability and continuity and individual relationship to the voter and constituency. They may also have to overcome the difficulty voters may have in understanding the roles and equality of the final incumbents of the various seats in the assembly.
How to Make Up Their Minds About Candidates : Voters will be faced with the necessity of selecting both a party and an individual candidate. Educators will explain that this means voters can decide to make their selection on the basis of party criteria or personal criteria and that it is possible for a person to 'split' their vote. Recognition of candidate names and party names and symbols will be necessary.
How to Cast Their Votes : Ballot design will have a significant impact on the manner in which voters cast their votes. They may be faced with a single piece of paper with two sections or columns (the New Zealand model) or with two separate ballot papers, one looking like a standard first past the post ballot and one a proportional ballot (as has been used to State Duma elections in Russia). Examples of these will need to be prepared and shown to voters. Mock elections may be as necessary in combined systems as in other systems, and may be doubly important if there is some separation of the ballots through independent ballot boxes.
How Their Votes Will Affect the Results : Educators will need to master the system by which the combined system counts and distributes votes. While it seems to be a simple process to explain--your PR vote is counted up and distributed proportionally and the other is used in a simple first past the post result--it does seem to cause some confusion amongst voters. Some of this confusion has been caused by educators themselves who find, in the midst of an explanation, that they do not have a full grasp of the concept. So educator training is essential. In general, it seems better to keep the two (if two there are) votes separate while discussing results and make use of metaphors and explanations suitable for each system).
What the Final Outcome Will Look Like : Once voters have a firm understanding of the basic results frameworks of the various systems, educators can use this understanding to introduce the manner in which the assembly is constructed. Diagrams that show which section was determined by proportional distribution and which was determined by the assumption of seats by constituency representatives are useful here. If the system is one in which the constituency seats form the backbone of the assembly, with the proportional vote being used to make up a fully proportional assembly, then a diagram that operates in two stages is most useful. Posters or model diagrams for educators should be prepared in advance of any face-to-face meetings.
General Strategies: Combined systems result in apparently hybrid assemblies--people have arrived there in different ways. Because of this, those conducting an educational programme in such a context may need to provide information on the roles and responsibilities of elected officials so that there can be no voter confusion about first and second class representatives, as appears to have emerged in parts of South Africa following combined system local elections.
