The machinery, not the argument

An electoral system is a formula for turning votes into seats, and the formula decides more than the campaign does. This register sets out those formulas, and the machinery built around them, one rule at a time.

What is here

Twenty-eight entries across eight sections: the formulas themselves, the geometry of districts, the arithmetic of apportionment, the design of the paper, the procedure of the count, the roll of electors, the workings of a legislature, and the places where reasonable-looking rules provably misbehave.

Every entry follows the same shape. One rule. What it demonstrably does. The country and the period it belongs to. Where scholars disagree about an effect, the entry says so rather than choosing a side.

What is not here

No commentary, no advocacy, no policy positions. No parties or movements described as good or bad. No current contests, campaigns or predictions. Where an example is needed, it is a settled historical one and it is named.

The register is comparative rather than American by default. A rule that operates in one jurisdiction is described as operating there, not as the way things are done.

The index

The full contents print on every page, at the top of the front page and in the footer everywhere else. Nothing is behind a click, a hover or an overlay. If you would rather read the roster in one column, every entry is listed here.