Do Voters Act Differently in Simple Majority and Single Non-transferable Voting (SNTV)?

To compare how differently people vote in Single Non-transferable Vote (SNTV) and in the single-member plurality, this paper utilizes the index of SF Ratio (ratio of the second to the first loser’s vote total), a district level data proposed by Gary Cox (1997), to measure the extent to which the strategic voting is exhibited. Based on the Taiwan magistrates and legislative elections in 2001, the empirical result shows that SNTV does have different impact on people’s voting response. The paper concludes with the findings that, first, people do not converge their votes to the potential candidates in SNTV as obviously as in the single plurality. Second, the competition in the SNTV system does not help improving this phenomenon either. Third, the larger the SNTV district magnitude is, the vote dispersion becomes more apparent. Four, even if there is some degree of vote convergence in SNTV, it has no substantial assistance to the seat bonus for either party. Finally, the most important factor for the party to improve the winnable seats in SNTV is basically from the nomination. So long as the party nominates appropriate numbers of candidates in SNTV, strategic voting does not influence the electoral result that much. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]