Editing Proportional representation (section)

===Party magnitude===
Party magnitude is the number of candidates elected from one party in one district. As district magnitude increases, it is likely more parties will elect larger delegations in the district and thus enjoy larger party magnitude.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/pcc/pcc04/pcc04b|title=Party Magnitude and Candidate Selection —|website=aceproject.org}}</ref>

As party magnitude increases, a party may decide to broaden its appeal by nominating women and members of minority groups.<ref name=":0" /> A balanced ticket will be more successful than a narrow slate. This encourages parties to nominate women and minority candidates.<ref>{{cite web |title=Party Magnitude and Candidate Selection |url=http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/pcc/pcc04/pcc04b |publisher=[[ACE Electoral Knowledge Network]]}}</ref>

But under STV, nominating too many candidates can be counter-productive, splitting the first-preference votes and allowing candidates to be eliminated before receiving transferred votes from elected or eliminated candidates of the same party and of other parties. An example of this was identified in a ward in the [[2007 Scottish local elections]] where [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], putting up three candidates, won only one seat while they might have won two if they had only run two and party support (as seen in first-preference votes) had been redistributed among just the two.<ref name="DMstvPdf" /> 

The same effect may have contributed to the collapse of representation of [[Fianna Fáil]] in the [[2011 Irish general election]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Kelly |first1=Michael |title=The fall of Fianna Fáil in the 2011 Irish general election |url=http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/1048883/The-fall-of-Fianna-Fail-in-the-2011-Irish-general-election.html |website=[[Significance (magazine)|Significance]] |publisher=[[Royal Statistical Society]], [[American Statistical Association]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140806103006/http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/1048883/The-fall-of-Fianna-Fail-in-the-2011-Irish-general-election.html |archive-date=6 August 2014}}</ref> The party received about half the votes compared to the previous election but received only one quarter of the seats it had received in that earlier election. In Dublin West, for example, it ran 13 candidates but elected just one.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/observatoire/1194 | title=General Elections 2011 Ireland }}</ref>

But generally in STV contests, transfers of votes allow each party to take roughly its due share of the seats based on vote tallies of the party's candidates. As well, where all the candidates of a party preferred by a voter are eliminated, the vote may find usefulness by being transferred to a candidate of a different party who is liked by the voter.<ref>Hoag and Hallett, Proportional Representation, p. 74</ref>