This will not be news to some DP readers. On October 10, voters in Ontario, Canada will decide whether to switch to a mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system for provincial parliamentary elections.

MMP was born in post-war Germany, where its name roughly translates to “personalized proportional representation.” The basic idea is to have two tiers: a dominant collection of single-member plurality districts and some set of list seats. List seats are allocated to parties in order to even out any disproportion of seats to votes resulting in the districts.

In other words, the district elections “personalize” the PR resulting from the list tier; having ‘one’s own MP’ counterbalances the party-strengthening tendency of list PR. Much opposition nonetheless is based on a fear that party control of who gets to be on the lists will shift the balance in favor of elites at the expense of voters. An op-ed in today’s Toronto Star holds this as a principal reason for MMP’s 2005 defeat in Prince Edward Island.

There are variants of MMP. Party lists can be polity-wide, or they can apply to smaller multi-member districts. List votes can be determined from voters’ district votes, or voters can have two votes (allowing them to support a party and split their ticket at the district level, if they so choose). The list and district tiers can have a fixed number of seats each, or the magnitude of the list tier can fluctuate (as happens in Germany).

The Ontarian proposal calls for a two-vote system with fixed shares (90 districts, 39 list seats). To win list seats, parties must cross a province-wide 3% threshold. If a party wins more district seats than entitled to by its province-wide vote share, it will keep the seats (versus fluctuating the size of the legislature, above). Specifics are available at a very user-friendly website the government has put up as part of its public information campaign.

To pass, the proposal will require a 60% super majority province-wide and simple majorities in 64 of 111 ridings (single-member districts). A 2005 proposal in British Columbia to switch to the single transferable vote required a 60% province-wide and majorities in 60% of the province’s ridings. That vote fell barely 3% short province-wide. Another referendum is expected in 2009.

Both Ontario and BC’s proposals came from Citizens Assemblies - a group of ‘average people’ recruited (and modestly compensated) to learn about electoral systems, review the options and make a recommendation.