Plurality voting (FPTP or “first past the post”)--Used to elect a sole winner in a certain election. Plurality voting is also referred to as winner-take-all voting. The tern FPTP was coined as a correlation to horse racing, where the race’s winner is the first to pass a specific point in the track (a plurality of votes), after which all the other race participants automatically lose.
Countries that use Plurality voting or FPTP:
- Canada
- Ethiopia
- India (Proportional representation in upper house)
- Malaysia
- Morocco
- Singapore
- United Kingdom (Parliamentary and local government elections in England and Wales only, PR in elections for EU)
- United States of America (except for Louisiana)
Runoff voting--Used widely in single-seat elections around the world, including in elections for the President of France and Finland. Also employed in a political party's primary elections, in which it chooses candidates to present to the public. It is sometimes called the two round system when limited to two rounds. When the number of rounds is unlimited, then it is referred to as an elimination ballot.
Countries that use Runoff voting system:
- Cuba
- Czech Republic
- Finland (President )
- France
- Vietnam
- Switzerland
- Lithuania
- Georgia
Party-list proportional representation—A group of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections, underscoring proportional representation. Parties file lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get assigned to each party corresponding to the number of votes the party gets.
Countries that use Party-list proportional representation voting system:
- Angola
- Argentina
- Austria
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Indonesia
- Netherlands
Bloc voting (or block voting)— A group of voting systems which can be apply to elect a number of representatives from a single multimember electorate.
Countries that use Bloc voting system:
- Thailand
- Mauritius
- Kuwait
- Laos
Mixed member proportional representation (MMP)—A voting system used to elect representatives to numerous legislatures around the globe.
Countries that use Mixed member proportional representation (MMP) voting system:
- Germany (Bundestag, Federal lower house)
- New Zealand
- House of Representatives (unicameral Parliament)
- United Kingdom
- London Assembly
- Scottish Parliament
- Italy (Camera dei Deputati - lower house, since 1994)
- Mexico (Cámara de Diputados, lower house)
Parallel voting—Two concurrent systems are used to elect representatives to the same body.
Countries that use Parallel voting system:
- South Korea (Parallel / FPTP)
- Senegal
- Republic of China (Taiwan) (Legislative Yuan Parallel / SNTV )
- Philippines (Parallel / FPTP )
- Japan (Parallel / FPTP)
