Cumulative voting

Cumulative voting (sometimes called the single divisible vote) is an election system where a voter casts multiple votes but can lump votes on a specific candidate or can split their votes across multiple candidates. The candidates elected are those receiving the largest number of votes cast in the election, up to the number of representatives to be elected.

Cumulative voting can simplify strategic voting, by allowing larger groups of voters to elect multiple representatives by splitting their vote between multiple candidates. This removes the complexity associated with randomized or coordinated strategies.

It may be thought of as a variant of block voting. Under both cumulative voting and block voting, a voter casts multiple votes but in the case of cumulative voting, can lump them all on one candidate (the equivalent of engaging in plumping). When voters do this, the result is similar to SNTV. When supporters of a minority candidate do this, they may be of sufficient strength to elect that minority representative, not a likely occurrence under either first past the post voting or block voting. Thus, cumulative voting generally produces similar results to SNTV (especially if voters are informed and rational, in which case they will tend to engage in plumping. Plumping though reduces cumulative voting's effectiveness at reducing need for strategic voting by allowing the voter to cast a split vote.).

Cumulative voting can also be thought of as a form of cardinal voting: a variant on score voting where the total scores for each voter must add up to a fixed value (e.g.