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Glite Dictionary
cumulative vote

cumulative vote

7.1
A voting system where each voter has as many votes as seats and gives them to one or more candidates
  • noun
  • /ˈkjuːmjʊlətɪv voʊt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : voto acumulativo
  • The cumulative vote allows each citizen to express their preferences by allocating multiple votes to different candidates.

Examples

  • In the upcoming election, voters can use a cumulative vote system to support their preferred candidates more effectively.

  • By using a cumulative vote, participants can distribute their votes across several candidates to promote minority representation.

  • If minorities constitute at least 26% of the vote (as they did last time), and he wins at least 80% of their cumulative votes (as he did last time), he can win a national majority with support from only about 40% of whites.

    Blog text (23)

How Unequal

census suffrage
  • Archaic
9.9
cumulative vote
  • Specialized
7.1
suffrage
19 7.6

Surface Forms

cumulative vote singular
cumulative votes plural

Morphology

cumulative + vote

The adjective 'cumulative' (increasing by successive additions) combined with 'vote' conveys the general idea that votes are added or accumulated, so a learner can infer some relation to aggregated voting. However, the specific procedural meaning — that each voter has multiple votes they may concentrate or distribute among candidates — is a technical electoral rule not fully predictable from the parts alone, so full comprehension requires prior exposure.

Etymology

Cumulative vote comes from cumulative meaning 'adding up' and vote meaning 'a choice'. Imagine you have several votes and can pile them on one candidate or divide them among others, and that's why it means a system where you can give all your votes to one person or split them among candidates.