Plural voting is the practice whereby one person
might be able to vote multiple times in an
election. It is not to be confused with a
plurality voting system which does
not necessarily involve plural voting.
United Kingdom
In the
United
Kingdom
, for example, people affiliated with a university
could vote in both a university
constituency and their home constituency, and property owners
could vote both in the constituency where their property lay and
that in which they lived, if the two were different. Some
university-educated property owners could even vote in three
different constituencies. These practices were abolished by the
Representation of
the People Act 1948.
Belgium
In Belgium, plural voting was introduced in 1893 and applied for
elections from 1894 to 1919 as a way to limit the impact of
universal suffrage.
Every male citizen over 25 got one vote for legislative elections,
but some electors got up to 2 supplementary votes according to some
criteria: :
- holder of a school diploma;
- family head over 30, paying a poll tax
of at least 5 francs;
- holder of a savings account of at least 2,000 francs, or
beneficiary of a life annuity of at
least 100 francs.
For municipal elections, a fourth vote was granted to family heads
who paid a fixed level of electoral tax, or whose cadastral income
was at least of 150 francs.
New Zealand
Plural
voting, also referred to as "Dual Voting" in New Zealand
abolished when universal suffrage arrived in
1889. It was previously available to certain male property
owners, and between 1867 and 1889 to all
Māori males of age 21 and over.
See also
References