"Single Vote" PR

Admin's note - I came to thinking about electoral reform as I like designing stuff. Being politically aware in the UK I designed an electoral system. I have been developing it on and off for about a year, a reasonable investment in time and thought which I now owe some time and energy into getting realised.

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SVPR is similar to the local list system. It provides a fully proportional result, equal access to representation and the most local, mandated and accountable MPs possible (as far as I can figure out) with full proportionality. The ballot paper remains mostly unchanged with a single vote and one candidate for each party. At elections polling constituencies of a similar size to the current Parliamentary constituencies are used.

Votes for parties are aggregated in the regions used in EU Parliamentary elections, or similar divisions. Seats, totaling the number of constituencies in the region, are proportionally awarded to parties. A party’s seats are awarded to its candidates with the highest vote counts. Remaining votes from the regions are then aggregated at UK level and used to allocate seats (~3% of the total seats) to the parties and their highest vote winning candidates without seats. For this last allocation the proportional results from the UK vote count is used to determine votes required per seat.

A Parliamentary constituency is formed of a candidate’s polling constituency and other constituencies and wards so that all voters for an elected party are represented by an MP from that party. The make-up of Parliamentary constituencies is by agreement of a party’s MPs. Each MP should have an approximately equally sized constituency relating to their party's vote. A party can request their vote be recorded at a polling constituencie's ward level to inform this process. MPs with a high workload may wish to have smaller constituencies as may MPs serving remote constituencies.

Where an incumbent is on the ballot paper there will be another option for the incumbent’s party marked “[party] representation by another candidate". These votes will count towards the national tally but not towards the constituency candidate gaining a seat. This allows a voter to hold an MP accountable while still supporting their party. This will also give voters some influence over the political make up of a Parliamentary party.
 
There is a threshold for the percentage of a constituency’s electorate a candidate needs to be awarded a seat. The problem of too many ‘kingmaker’ parties in proportionally elected Parliaments is solved by dynamicly adjusting this threshold to disqualify candidates with the least votes, predominantly belonging to minor parties. This keeps the ratio of larger and smaller parties within pre-defined limits for a well-functioning Parliament. Mechanisms to deploy AV systems for voters of minor parties would be integrated to avoid disenfranchising greater numbers of voters, where opinion polling suggests there is otherwise likely to be a democratic concern.

All votes have the Speaker as an alternative vote so otherwise wasted votes for regionally unelected parties and remainders from UK seat assignment would go to the Speaker. There is an opt out box on the ballot paper for voters who do not want their votes used in this way. A Westminster Palace constituency is formed for the purpose of combining this into the electoral process.

Change - MPs run for re-election across their whole Parliamentary constituency with a second candidate as a viable alternative/repository for voters showing disaproval of their MP. This means MPs are accountable to their whole constituency, ~50k of voters for their party. It also gives alternative candidates a real chance to be selected to offer a different position to the incumbent thus giving the electorate the chance to shape parliamentary parties. Every candidate running would have an equal, and reasonable, chance of election as they have a electorate of ~50k of their party's voters at the last election.