Exhaustive Ballot - Use in Practice

Use in Practice

• Members of the Australian House of Representatives are elected using an exhaustive ballot.
• Scottish government: The First Minister, and the Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament are elected by the exhaustive ballot method.
• The host city of the Olympic Games is chosen by an exhaustive ballot of members of the International Olympic Committee. Members from a country which has a city competing in the election are forbidden from voting unless the city has been eliminated.
• The President of the European Parliament is elected by all members of the body to be its 'speaker' or chairperson. In the election if no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round then there are up to three more rounds. In the second and third rounds anyone who wants to is free to stand, but candidates who perform poorly sometimes withdraw to help others be elected. If no-one achieves an absolute majority in the third round then only the two candidates with most votes are allowed to proceed to the fourth and final round of voting.
• The Speaker of the British House of Commons is elected by secret ballot by members of the house. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority in the first round then the candidate with fewest votes and any other candidate who has received less than 5% of all votes is immediately eliminated. Subsequent rounds proceed according to the ordinary rules of the exhaustive ballot.
• The Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons is elected under essentially the same variant of the exhaustive ballot used for the British counterpart, with candidates on less than 5% in the first round immediately excluded.
• Party nominees for the President of the United States: Delegates to the Democratic and Republican Parties' respective nominating conventions cast votes for their preferred candidate, and if no majority is reached on the first ballot, additional rounds follow until one candidate reaches a majority. In the past this process could be long and acrimonious, ending only with brokered deals made in a proverbial smoke-filled room. In the modern day the actual voting process is a perfunctory exercise, as primary elections encourage the emergence of a clear front-runner long before the conventions.