Editing Proportional representation (section)

=== 19th century ===
A PR system that uses single transferable votes was invented in 1819 by an English schoolmaster, [[Thomas Wright Hill]]. He devised a "plan of election" for the committee of the Society for Literary and Scientific Improvement in Birmingham that used not only transfers of surplus votes from elected candidates but also transfers from candidates who did not have enough votes to be elected, a refinement that later [[Carl Christoffer Georg Andræ|Carl Andræ]] and Hare initially omitted. But the procedure seemed unsuitable for a public election and was not publicised. In 1839, Hill's son, colonial administrator [[Rowland Hill]], recommended the concept for a city election in Adelaide, and a simple process was used in which voters were allowed to form groups that would each elect one representative. Each group, being equally sized, elected a representative with the same number of votes, ensuring election of a carpenter and a draper in addition to usual politician types.<ref name="hoagHallett" /><ref>{{cite news |work=South Australian Register |title=Municipal Election |date=October 31, 1840 |p=2 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27441962}}</ref>

The [[Sainte-Laguë method]] of party-list proportional representation was first described in 1832 by the American statesman and senator [[Daniel Webster]].

The list plan system was conceived by Thomas Gilpin, a retired paper-mill owner, in a paper he read to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in Philadelphia in 1844: "On the representation of minorities of electors to act with the majority in elected assemblies". It ensured at least one popularly elected member for each part of a multi-member district and also district-wide party-balanced representation.<ref name="auto2">Swain, Civics for Montana Students, 1912, p. 163</ref> It was never put into practical use, but even as late as 1914 it was put forward as a way to elect the U.S. electoral college delegates and for local elections.<ref name="hoagHallett" /><ref>Hoag, Effective Voting (1914), p. 31</ref><ref name="auto2" />

A practical election using the single transferable vote system (a combination of preferential voting and multi-member districts) was devised in Denmark by Carl Andræ, a mathematician, and first used there in 1855, making it the oldest PR system.

STV was also invented (apparently independently) in the UK in 1857 by [[Thomas Hare (political scientist)|Thomas Hare]], a London [[barrister]], in his pamphlet ''The Machinery of Representation'' and expanded on in his 1859 ''Treatise on the Election of Representatives''. The scheme was enthusiastically taken up by [[John Stuart Mill]], ensuring international interest. The 1865 edition of Hare's book included the transfer of preferences from dropped candidates and the STV method was essentially complete, although Hare pictured the entire British Isles as one single district. Mill proposed it to the House of Commons in 1867, but the British parliament rejected it. The name of the system evolved from "Mr. Hare's scheme" to "proportional representation", then "proportional representation with the single transferable vote", and finally, by the end of the 19th century, to "the single transferable vote". Such a system was well suited to the British political tradition prevalent in the English-speaking world because under STV, votes are cast directly for individuals.<ref>Humphreys, Proportional Representation (1911)</ref> STV was later adopted for national elections in Malta (1921), the Republic of Ireland (1921) and Australia (1948).

In Australia, the political activist [[Catherine Helen Spence]] became an enthusiast of STV and an author on the subject. Through her influence and the efforts of the Tasmanian politician [[Andrew Inglis Clark]], Tasmania became an early pioneer of the system, [[Hare–Clark electoral system|electing the world's first legislators through STV in 1896]], prior to its federation into Australia.<ref>Newman, Hare-Clark in Tasmania, p. 7-10</ref>