Page:Carroll (1884).djvu/39

 produce by any variation in these data,) viz. that it leaves about 49 p. c. of the Electors unrepresented. The system (already discussed at p. 4) of "equal electoral Districts, each returning one Member" is only a particular instance of this general law.

The method of 'cumulative voting' (where an Elector can give two or more votes to the same Candidate) will usually have no other effect than to increase the 'specific gravity'—so to speak—of a vote. Let each Elector have 4 votes, with permission to 'lump' them if he chooses, and in the end you will find most of the votes given in lumps of 4, and the result much the same as if each Elector had had one vote only.

The conclusion is that the important point is to let each Elector give one vote only.

By a process, exactly similar to that employed at p. 9, we may prove that, if r be the number of recorded votes, and m the number of Members to be returned, the quota