Home > 1.2 Equal suffrage > Report on Electoral Systems - Overview of available solutions and selection criteria
 
 
 
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During an election, there may be several levels of constituencies coexisting alongside one another. The method of casting votes or the guiding principle may therefore vary depending on constituency size. For elections to the US House of Representatives, use has sometimes been made of single-member majority voting in small constituencies and a multi-member majority system in bigger constituencies. When the number of seats allocated to each State increased, these different constituency levels were used to designate additional elected representatives and no fresh divisions of single-member constituencies were made. A number of constituencies may also be superimposed over each other. In hybrid systems, representatives are sometimes elected at two levels of constituencies. In Mexico, for example, of the 500 representatives making up the Chamber of Deputies, 300 are elected by a single-member, one-round first-past-the-post system and 200 by means of a system of regional proportional representation using closed lists in multimember constituencies. In South Korea, half the deputies are appointed by single-member constituencies, with the other half being elected by proportional representation in a national constituency. The joint use of personal circles and territorial constituencies is also possible. It enables specific majorities to be represented, as in the case of the election of the House of Representatives in New Zealand (61 territorial constituencies, 6 constituencies reserved for the Maori minority and 53 seats for list MPs).