General ticket

General ticket representation is a voting system comparable to block voting, except for the fact that voters elect parties, not candidates. The parties then select their representatives to fill out elected office.

General ticket systems were used in elections to the US House of Representatives; in France, beginning in the Third Republic; and in Italy.

Use in the United States

For convenience or in order to assure majority control, many states adopted general ticket representation to elect the multiple members of a state delegation to the House of Representatives. In doing so, those states ensured that a group which might be a majority in only a portion of the state would always be outvoted by the larger majority throughout the state. States using this method elected their entire delegation in a statewide manner, either on a single ballot (by means of bloc voting) or on separate ballots for each seat, but always allowing every voter in the state to vote for a candidate for each seat. It was a system used frequently until restricted by the 1842 Apportionment Bill and subsequent legislation, most recently in 1967.[1] After 1842, it has continued to be used in rare instances, typically states with small delegations or admitted to the union since the last census.

The following is a table of every instance of the use of the general ticket in the United States Congress.

Congress	Dates	State and number of representatives
1st	1789–1791	Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3), Pennsylvania (8)
2nd	1791–1793	Connecticut (5), New Jersey (4), New Hampshire (3)
3rd	1793–1795	Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (2)
4th	1795–1797	Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
5th	1797–1799	Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
6th	1799–1801	Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
7th	1801–1803	Connecticut (7), Georgia (2), New Jersey (5), New Hampshire (4), Rhode Island (2)
8th	1803–1805	Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2), Tennessee (3)
9th	1805–1807	Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Jersey (5), Rhode Island (2)
10th	1807–1809	Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
11th	1809–1811	Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
12th	1811–1813	Connecticut (7), Georgia (4), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
13th	1813–1815	Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
14th	1815–1817	Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
15th	1817–1819	Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
16th	1819–1821	Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (6)
17th	1821–1823	Connecticut (7), Delaware (2), Georgia (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
18th	1823–1825	Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2), Vermont (5)
19th	1825–1827	Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
20th	1827–1829	Connecticut (6), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
21st	1829–1831	Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
22nd	1831–1833	Connecticut (6), Georgia (7), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (6), Rhode Island (2)
23rd	1833–1835	Connecticut (6), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
24th	1835–1837	Connecticut (6), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (2)
25th	1837–1839	New Hampshire (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2)
26th	1839–1841	New Hampshire (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2)
27th	1841–1843	Alabama (5), Georgia (9), Missouri (2), Mississippi (2), New Hampshire (5), New Jersey (6), Rhode Island (2)
28th	1843–1845	New Hampshire (4), Georgia (8), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4)
29th	1845–1847	Iowa (2), New Hampshire (4), Missouri (5), Mississippi (4)
30th	1847–1849	Wisconsin (2)
31st	1849–1851	California (2)
32nd	1851–1853	California (2)
33rd	1853–1855	California (2)
34th	1855–1857	California (2)
35th	1857–1859	California (2), Minnesota (2)
36th	1859–1861	California (2), Minnesota (2)
37th	1861–1863	California (3), Minnesota (2)
38th to 42nd	1863–1873	California (3)
43rd to 47th	1873–1883	Florida (2), Kansas (3)
48th	1883–1885	Maine (4)
51st	1889–1891	South Dakota (2)
52nd	1891–1893	South Dakota (2)
53rd	1893–1895	South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
54th	1895–1897	South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
55th	1897–1899	South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
56th	1899–1901	South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
57th	1901–1903	South Dakota (2), Washington (2)
58th	1903–1905	North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Washington (3)
59th	1905–1907	North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Washington (3)
60th	1907–1909	North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Washington (3)
61st	1909–1911	North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2)
62nd	1911–1913	North Dakota (2), New Mexico (2), South Dakota (2)
63rd	1913–1915	Idaho (2), Montana (2), UT (2)
64th	1915–1917	Idaho (2), Montana (2)
65th to 72nd	1917–1933	Idaho (2), Montana (2)
73rd	1933–1935	Kentucky (9), Minnesota (9), Missouri (13), North Dakota (2), Virginia (9)
74th	1935–1937	North Dakota (2)
75th	1937–1939	North Dakota (2)
76th	1939–1941	North Dakota (2)
77th	1941–1943	North Dakota (2)
78th	1943–1945	Arizona (2), New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
79th	1945–1947	Arizona (2), New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
80th	1947–1949	Arizona (2), New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
81st	1949–1951	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
82nd	1951–1953	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
83rd	1953–1955	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
84th	1955–1957	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
85th	1957–1959	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
86th	1959–1961	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
87th	1961–1963	New Mexico (2), North Dakota (2)
88th	1963–1965	Alabama (8), Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2)
89th	1965–1967	Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2)
90th	1967–1969	Hawaii (2), New Mexico (2)
91st	1969–1971	Hawaii (2)

French version

The scrutin de liste (Fr. scrutin, voting by ballot, and liste, a list) was, before World War I, a system of election of national representatives in France by which the electors of a department voted for all the deputies to be elected in that department. It was comparable with the general ticket. It was distinguished from the scrutin d'arrondissement, also called scrutin uninominal, under which the electors in each arrondissement voted only for the deputy to be elected in it.[2]

Nowadays, it is used on two-round bases to elect one third of the members of the regional councils, so as to ensure a landslide victory to the party which receives a majority.

Italian version

In Italy, general ticket representation is the system that has been used to elect one fifth of the members of the regional councils since 1995. As in the French version, its goal is to ensure that the assembly is controlled by the leading coalition of parties. Unlike France, it is used on a single round of voting.

References

Public Law 90-196, 2 U.S.C. § 2c)
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Scrutin de Liste". Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 487.

Sources

Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

External links

U.S. House of Representatives: House History

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[1] Public Law 90-196, 2 U.S.C. § 2c)

[2] One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Scrutin de Liste". Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 487.