Panachage

Fictitious example

The North Staulsaw constituency in the Wafonian Republican Parliament elects six members using a fully open list. Three lists, containing twenty-two candidates in total, are vying for its seats. in this example, 40,500 votes are cast. The totals for each candidate and party are:

In the first step, seats are apportioned between the parties in according to their vote share. When using the D'Hondt method of rounding, the Social Democratic Party wins 3 seats, the NCP 2, and the LCC 1. (See highest averages method for further explanation.)

The SDP seats go to its most popular three candidates by vote tally: Megan Vargas, Matt Wright, and Pranav Kapoor. The NCP seats go to its top two candidates, Janek Campbell-Pitt and Tricia Chapman. The LCC seat goes to Sam Miller.

By country

Argentina

From 1912 to 1948, and from 1958 and 1962, Argentine voters had the possibility of crossing out or adding candidates to the electoral lists of the legislative elections.

Austria

Panachage was used in Austria until the 1970s.

Belgium

Until the parliamentary elections of 1900, panachage was allowed in provincial and parliamentary elections in Belgium. Candidates were placed on lists in alphabetical order of surname.

Municipal elections were held under the panachage system starting in 1932 until passage of the 5 July 1976 Law. This change was adopted before the first elections (October 1976) following the 1976 communes merger, which reduced the number of Belgian communes from 2,359 to 596. Bills were introduced in 1995 and 1999 by senators from the Volksunie to reinstitute panachage, but they were never put to votes.

Ecuador

In the Ecuadorian parliamentary elections, voters have as many votes as there are seats to be filled. They may use their votes to support candidates across party lines (and they may also give several votes to a single candidate).

El Salvador

El Salvador adopted an open list proportional system for the 2012 legislative elections. It introduced panachage for the 2015 elections:

France

Since 2014, voters in municipal elections in communes having fewer than 1,000 inhabitants (at the time: 26,879 communes, representing 73.5% of the total) have been able to cast ballot papers indicating their preference for candidates either listed or named individually, and, in addition, cross out if they so wish the names of one or more candidates. (Before that time, the upper population limit for communes qualified for this system of voting had been 3,500.) The number of candidates selected by a voter must not, however, exceed the total number of available seats.

Until a reform effective 17 May 2013, voters had been able to write in the names of other, unlisted eligible citizens. But now all nominations must be filed in advance with the prefecture or sub-prefecture, and voters may no longer add names on election day.

Germany

Of sixteen federal states, two (Bremen and Hamburg, both of which are city-states) have adopted electoral systems including panachage (Panaschieren) for state and municipal elections. Eleven others use the system only for municipal elections. Schleswig-Holstein uses SNTV to select candidates from lists, i.e. voters may only give one vote to a candidate they support. In all other states allowing panachage, voters may give more than one vote for one or several candidate(s) (cumulative voting). Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland do not use panachage.

Honduras

Panachage within an open list proportional system has been used since 2005 for legislative elections in Honduras.

Luxembourg

In all proportional elections, such as those for the Chamber of Deputies, a voter in Luxembourg has as many votes as there are seats to be filled in that constituency. The individual may vote either for candidates on the same list or for candidates on different lists and may allocate up to two votes to a single candidate.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, in addition to being able to distribute their votes between different lists, voters may add names to lists or delete one or more of the names appearing on others. Each candidate can be placed up to two times on the ballot paper. This practice is known as cumulative voting.

References

References

1. "Open, Closed and Free Lists —".
2. "Merriam-Webster – panachage".
3. Hoag and Hallett, Proportional Representation, p. 52-53
4. (April 1993). "Elecciones". Directorate of Parliamentary Information of the National Congress.
5. "[http://www.parlament.ch/e/wissen/parlamentswoerterbuch/wahlwoerterbuch/Pages/panaschieren.aspx Splitting the vote] {{webarchive. link. (2015-04-07", "[http://www.parlament.ch/e/wissen/parlamentswoerterbuch/wahlwoerterbuch/Pages/kumulieren.aspx Accumulating] {{webarchive). link. (2015-04-07" and "[http://www.parlament.ch/e/wissen/parlamentswoerterbuch/wahlwoerterbuch/Pages/streichen.aspx Deleting a name] {{webarchive). link. (2015-04-07", ''The Election Dictionary'', website of the Swiss Parliament)
6. {{in lang
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9. Craig Arceneaux, ''Democratic Latin America'', Routledge, 2015 {{ISBN. (July 2025)
10. George Rodriguez, "[http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/02/28/voters-head-to-the-polls-in-el-salvador-to-elect-legislators-mayors Voters head to the polls in El Salvador to elect legislators, mayors]", ''Tico Times'', 28 February 2015
11. {{in lang. es "[http://es.calameo.com/read/001686636ac80aa84289b Papeletas para las elecciones 2015] (reproduction of ballot papers and explanation of the new voting system)", ''Tribunal Supremo Electoral''
12. [http://ps.ucdavis.edu/people/mshugart Matthew S. Shugart], "[https://fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/el-salvador-joins-the-panachage-ranks-presidents-party-holds-steady/ El Salvador joins the panachage ranks, president’s party holds steady]", ''Fruits and Votes'', 8 March 2015
13. (17 May 2013). "LOI n° 2013-403 du 17 mai 2013 relative à l'élection des conseillers départementaux, des conseillers municipaux et des conseillers communautaires, et modifiant le calendrier électoral". Legifrance.
14. (23 March 2014). "Code électoral – Article L255-4". Legifrance.
15. (in German) Martin Fehndrich, [http://www.wahlrecht.de/lexikon/panaschieren.html Panaschieren], ''Wahlrecht.de'', 19 March 2009
16. (in German) [http://www.probewahl.de/ Interactive vote simulation], 2016
17. "[http://www.electionpassport.com/electoral-systems/honduras/ Honduras]", ''Election Passport''
18. some communes use the system of relative majority, cf. [http://www.luxembourg.public.lu/en/le-grand-duche-se-presente/systeme-politique/systeme-electoral/communales/index.html Local Elections], ''www.luxembourg.lu (The official presentation website of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg)'', Updated 28 April 2015
19. IFES Election Guide: [http://electionguide.org/country.php?ID=126 Country Profile - Luxembourg]. Retrieved on 23 April 2008.