Electoral Stasis
Electoral stasis is a condition which arises when an electorate cannot realistically change its political composition, regardless of the swing occurring in a general election. A safe seat in a single member electoral system is one that is in electoral stasis. Proportional representation systems, such as STV ballots, can also be in electoral stasis. These “safe seats” can be ignored by political party strategists who will allocate resources to other electorates.
In an electorate returning two members, the quota, (33.34%) is too large to be affected by swings in an election. For example, the Territories in the Australian Senate have always returned one member from each of the two major parties. In an electorate returning three members electoral stasis occurs when the weaker party is able to gain a quota (25.01%). The more popular party will then win two seats and the weaker party one seat.
The smaller the number of members to be elected, the more likely that the electorate will be in electoral stasis. The larger the number of members returned by an electorate the greater the chance that a voter who changes his or her vote can influence the outcome of the election.
Read more about this topic: Issues Affecting The Single Transferable Vote
Famous quotes containing the words electoral and/or stasis:
“Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“I shall speak of ... how melancholy and utopia preclude one another. How they fertilize one another.... Of the revulsion that follows one insight and precedes the next.... Of superabundance and surfeit. Of stasis in progress. And of myself, for whom melancholy and utopia are heads and tails of the same coin.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)