adopted, since on the second count he
would beat either of the other candidates separately by 51 votes to 49.

These plain facts are indisputable. What is to be thought, then, of the
claim made by Professor Nanson that Preferential Voting, with the
process of elimination, is the most perfect system known for
single-membered electorates.

+The Block Vote.+--The Block Vote, General Ticket, or _scrutin de
liste_, is in general use when there is more than one seat to be filled.
Each elector has as many votes as there are members to be elected, and
the highest on the list, to the number of representatives required, are
successful. Dealing first with elections to a legislative body, the
system is eminently unjust to parties. A rigid control of nominations is
necessary in the first place, because any party which splits up its
votes spoils its chance. Each party will therefore nominate only as many
candidates as there are seats, and the stronger of two parties, or the
strongest of a number of parties, will elect the entire list. A minority
might in the latter case secure all the representation, but the
practical effect of the Block Vote is to force the electors to group
themselves into two parties only. It therefore has the same beneficial
effect as the single electorate of confining representation to the two
main parties. This is apparently nob recognized by Professor Nanson, who
writes, in his pamphlet on the Hare system:--"Contrast with this the
results of the Block system. With strict party voting, which has been
assumed throughout, each of the five parties would put forward seven
candidates. The seven seats would all be secured by Form, with 44 votes
out of a total of 125, and the remaining 81, or more than two-thirds of
the voters, would be wholly unrepresented." Does the Professor really
think that the 81 (who, by the way, are _less_ than two-thirds) would be
so foolish as not to combine and secure all the seats?

The exclusion of the minority in a single-membered electorate excites
only a feeling of hopelessness, but when it fails to secure a single
representative in an electorate returning several members, a spirit of
rankling injustice is aroused. The Block Vote has, therefore, never been
tolerated for long in large electorates. In the early history of the
United States many of the States adopted it, and sent to Congress a
solid delegation of one party or the other. This proved so unjust, and
operated so adversely t