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The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system and the largest remainder method of party-list proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the minimum number of votes required for a party or candidate to capture a seat.
The Hare quota is the simplest quota that can be used in elections held under the STV system. In an STV election a candidate who reaches the quota is elected while any votes a candidate receives above the quota are transferred to another candidate. The Hare quota was devised by Thomas Hare, one of the earliest supporters of STV.
In Brazil the Hare quota is used to set the minimum number of seats allocated to each party or coalition. Remaining seats are allocated according to the D'Hondt method[1]. This procedure is used for the Federal Chamber of Deputies, State Assemblies, Municipal and Federal District Chambers.
Compared to some similar methods, the use of the Hare quota with the largest remainder method tends to favour the smaller parties at the expense of the larger ones. Thus in Hong Kong the use of the Hare quota has prompted political parties to nominate their candidates on separate tickets, as under this system this may increase the number of seats they obtain.[2] The Democratic Party, for example, filled 3 separate tickets in the 8-seat New Territories West constituency in the 2008 Legislative Council elections. In Hong Kong the Hare quota system has effectively become a multi-member single-vote system in the territory.[3][4]
In 1868 Henry Richmond Droop (1831–1884) invented the Droop quota as a fairer alternative to the Hare quota, and the Hare quota is today rarely used with STV.
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The Hare quota may be given as:
To see how the Hare quota works in an STV election imagine an election in which there are 2 seats to be filled and 3 candidates: Andrea, Carter and Brad. There are 100 voters as follows:
60 voters
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14 voters
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26 voters
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There are 100 voters and 2 seats. The Hare quota is therefore:
To begin the count the first preferences cast for each candidate are tallied and are as follows:
Andrea has more than 50 votes. She therefore has reached the quota and is declared elected. She has 10 votes more than the quota so these votes are transferred to Carter, as specified on the ballots. The tallies therefore become:
Brad is thus elected.
Result: The elected candidates are Andrea and Brad.
The Droop quota is smaller than the Hare quota, and is more efficient when counting ballots since a candidate needs only the smaller quota to be elected. Overall the two quotas give somewhat similar results since a candidate is bound to be elected once they achieve the Droop quota, however the results often differ, particularly with regard to the allocation of the last seat, based on the transfer of preferences. In the above example, using the Droop quota, Carter would be allocated the second seat in preference to Brad, by 40 votes to 26.
The difference between the two quotas comes down to what the quota implies. Winners elected under a Hare system represent that proportion of the electorate; winners under a Droop system were elected by that proportion of the electorate.
The Droop quota is today the most frequently used quota for STV elections.
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