Quota: Difference between revisions

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The "Droop quota" is the quota most commonly used in elections held under the [[single transferable vote]] (STV) system. It is also sometimes used in elections held under the [[largest remainder method]] of [[party-list proportional representation]] (list PR). In an STV election the quota is the minimum number of votes a candidate must receive in order to be elected. Any votes a candidate receives above the quota are transferred to another candidate. The Droop quota was devised in 1868 by the English lawyer and mathematician [[Henry Richmond Droop]] (1831–1884) as a replacement for the earlier [[Hare quota]].

Today the Droop quota is used in almost all STV elections, including the forms of STV used in [[India]], the [[Republic of Ireland]], [[Northern Ireland]], [[Malta]] and [[Australia]], among other places. The Droop quota is very similar to the simpler [[Hagenbach-Bischoff quota]], which is also sometimes loosely referred to as the 'Droop quota'.

Today the Droop quota is used in almost all STV elections, including the forms of STV used in [[India]], the [[Republic of Ireland]], [[Northern Ireland]], [[Malta]] and [[Australia]], among other places. The Droop quota is very similar to the simpler "[[Hagenbach-Bischoff quota]]", which is also sometimes loosely referred to as the 'Droop quota'.

=== Hagenbach-Bischoff quota ===

The '''Hagenbach-Bischoff quota''' ('''HB quota''') (known by a few other names as well) is:

<math>\left( \frac{\text{total valid poll}}{ \text{seats}+1 } \right)</math>

Some sources call the HB Quota a Droop Quota instead. There will always be exactly one more HB quota than seats to be filled. Because of this, it will on rare occasion be necessary to break a tie between various candidates to decide who should win with PR methods that use the HB quota.

When there are 5 seats to be filled and 100 votes cast, the HB quota is (100/(5+1)) = '''~16.667''' votes.

In the single-winner case, an HB quota is half of the voters. In this case, two candidates could each have half of the votes, i.e. two candidates each have one quota, but only one seat can be allotted. Because of this, many PR methods that use HB quotas specify that a candidate must have '' more'' votes than k HB quotas to get k seats (i.e. over half of the votes, in the single-winner case).

== References ==