On unfamiliar terms: what is cumulative voting?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Did you participate in the elections? And what? President, municipal? Then, most likely, you have not come across the concept of “cumulative voting”. The fact is that the concept is special. This type of voting is used in special cases. Let's look at them at least for the purpose of raising the educational level.

Definition

Cumulative voting is a kind of meeting of opinions when you need to choose not one person, but a whole group. Usually in this way a council or other representative body of various societies is formed. What do you mean?

Imagine

imagine that a certain group of citizens faces the task of determining the qualitative and quantitative composition of the group that will represent their interests. How to proceed here? If everyone speaks for a certain person from the "committee", then the result may not suit many. The fact is that with personal voting, the result is influenced by the characteristics of the individual. That is, a respected personsolid, promoted, of course, will receive more trust than not known to anyone. What's bad about it? And whose interests will he represent?

The meeting we are considering wants to have "their" representatives in the committee - those who will lobby for its interests. At the same time, the goal of each individual or group is precisely this. Nominate your lobby to the "committee". This is where cumulative voting was invented. It allows you to give a certain person (group) as many votes as it has positions.

Example

Imagine that our group of people is not homogeneous. It consists of those who can influence the process to one degree or another. One has 10 percent, another has 15 percent, and so on.

Cumulative voting allows you to give each member of the community the number of votes corresponding to his "representative weight". That is, one will have ten, the other - fifteen votes, and so on. How will they use this advantage? It is clear that everyone is in their own interests. But that is not all. Everyone will speak about the candidates. Then the counting process will begin. Since the number of votes of each is also multiplied by the number of seats, a complex scheme is obtained. The one who has the greatest "weight" in the community in question is sure to win.

Why is everything so complicated?

When analyzing what cumulative voting is, you need to understand: the process is built in such a way as to balance the chances of influence of all players. It applies only inwhen a group body is elected. Thus, it turns out that the voter himself can choose how to dispose of his "influence". He can vote for one candidate or split between all (certain). It turns out that cumulative voting is a process of multifaceted influence on the process. Any player chooses how to use his influence: to strengthen one person or spread out over several people. It is believed that this method more fairly takes into account the interests of all voters.

Where specifically used

This intricate method was invented for special occasions. Namely: it is used in the election of the Board of Directors of OJSC. This is enshrined in law. There is a document that regulates how the process itself is carried out, according to what principle the counting is carried out, and so on, up to the form of the ballot. This is done in order to equalize the rights of shareholders, to make voting more open and fair. Each bulletin is a document that contains the details of the organization and is signed by the head. In addition, it provides the opportunity to make your choice in two ways: by separate or general voting. I must say that the voter has the right to refuse all applicants. Usually the procedure itself is prescribed in the statutory documents of the company. Each shareholder is aware of their rights and opportunities. This does not exclude informing the participants of the process before the procedure.

Counting

The voting procedure is secret. Shareholders complete their ballots and fold them intospecial urn. Then the votes are counted. It should be taken into account that if a shareholder voted "against", this means that he did not support anyone.

There are no options here. You can't say no to just one candidate. In case of a positive vote, the number of positions gained by each candidate is entered into the statement. The one who collects the most wins. So it turns out that the meaning of the word “cumulative” (voting) is a collective opinion, that is, a multidirectional voice with “wide” opportunities. When processing ballots, much attention is paid to the verification of shareholders. A person can simply get confused and mark more positions than he has the right to. Such ballots, where the shareholder "overestimated" his strength, are considered invalid. They are not included in the calculation. According to experts, this way of distributing opinions makes it possible to protect those shareholders who have few assets from the pressure of the richer ones. Moreover, the board of directors can only be dismissed in its entirety. This does not allow "knocking out" "strangers" to make room for "us".