Plurality voting system is a famous electoral system where voters cast their ballots for candidates running for a particular office, and the candidate with the highest number of votes is declared the winner, regardless of whether they receive a majority or not.
Here are the pros and cons of the plurality voting system:
Now let’s discuss them in detail
Pros of the Plurality Voting system:
There are various advantages of using plurality voting system as discussed here:
Plurality Voting Makes Voting Easier: No Run off Required
Plurality voting does not require runoff elections, and the candidates are elected in a single go.
For example, we have seen runoff elections in the Georgia Senate race in 2020 and 2022. In both elections, senator Raphael Warnock won the first time, but he was unable to cross the 50% mark, which triggered the runoff elections.
Also, the world saw the runoff election in the Turkey presidential race in 2023.
The runoff elections are usually conducted among the top two candidates, so the candidate who gets the majority of votes in these elections ends up winning the race.
This means that separate resources are needed to conduct the runoff elections, which eventually increases the cost of conducting the polls.
And surprisingly enough, almost all the runoff elections are won by candidates who were leading in the first round of the election.
The plurality system is always a favorable method of polling, especially in economically weak countries which cannot afford to spend big money on elections.
Simplicity and Ease of Use
The plurality voting system is often praised for its simplicity. Voters need only mark their choice next to the name or symbol of one candidate, making it easy to understand and use. The counting process is also straightforward for electoral officials, even when the number of candidates on the ballot paper is significant. Eventually, this system helps eliminate voter apathy that can prevent many voters from casting their votes.
Exclusion of Extremist Candidates
Under the plurality voting system, extremist candidates and parties are often excluded from representation unless they have supporters dispersed all over the constituency. This is important since most extremist candidates tend to get power only by luring a small number of voters, but this is highly unlikely under the plurality system.
Opportunities for Independent Candidates
In developing party systems, plurality voting offers a chance for popular independent candidates to be elected. This is especially important in regions where political ties are still heavily influenced by extended family, kinship networks, and tribal loyalties, as strong party organizations may be lacking. A strong independent candidate can just grab the most votes among all other candidates to beat the political heavyweights.
Clear Choice for Voters
One advantage of the plurality voting system is that it presents voters with a clear-cut choice between candidates. This simplicity facilitates decision-making, as voters can quickly identify the significant options available to them. Voters know all the candidates well and they can cast votes as per their choice.
Cons of the Plurality Voting System
But there are many disadvantages of the plurality voting system as well, including:
It May Not Represent the Actual Will of the Voters
The main drawback of the plurality system is that it does not represent the actual will of people, as a candidate can get elected by winning a small number of votes without worrying about the majority.
The plurality voting system rarely tells us about the actual will of people. Let’s say one candidate is getting elected by winning only 26% of the votes in the race of four politicians.
This means that the remaining 74% of voters are somehow voting against this candidate (the votes cast in favor of other candidates are against the winning candidate). So, the verdict of this 26% of voters will be final, and this candidate will end up occupying public office.
Politicians Can Ignore a Whole Lot of Voters
In the plurality voting system, winning the elections is a whole lot easier compared to other election systems. You just have to get one vote more than your opponent, and you are good to go. This means that politicians can campaign on a specific set of voters and ignore the rest of them. At the end of the day, politicians do not want to get the absolute majority, they will only need to surpass all of their opponents in the vote count.
Underdevelopment of backward Areas
In the case of a plurality voting system, politicians can only focus on the densely populated areas of their constituency and thus ignore the areas with less population density.
This means that the awkward areas are often ignored by politicians, which results in the stunted growth of these regions. Eventually, the people of these are disenfranchised in various aspects of life, which contributes to their social, political, and economic downfall.