Compensation (electoral systems)

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Mixed systems By results of combination Mixed-member majoritarian Mixed-member proportional By mechanism of combination Non-compensatory Parallel (superposition) Coexistence Conditional Fusion (majority bonus) Compensatory Seat linkage system UK: 'AMS' NZ: 'MMP' Vote linkage system Negative vote transfer Mixed ballot Supermixed systems Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional Majority jackpot By ballot type Single vote Double simultaneous vote Dual-vote
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Compensation or correction is an optional mechanism of electoral systems, which corrects the results of one part of the system based on some criterion to achieve a certain result, usually to make it more proportional.^[1] There are in general two forms of compensation: vote linkage and seat linkage.

Compensation exists in many ranked voting systems such as instant-runoff voting and single transferable voting, where votes for eliminated candidates (and in the case of STV, surplus votes of elected candidates) are transferred to other candidates, thereby compensating voters who voted for candidates who may not be elected (or whose votes were not needed to get a candidate elected). This is an example of vote linkage compensation in a single-tier system. The equivalent of this type of compensation in case of party-list proportional representation is the spare vote.

In mixed electoral systems compensation is usually contrasted with superposition, which means two electoral systems are used independently of each other with multiple tiers.^[2] Most mixed compensatory electoral systems use seat linkage (typically mixed-member proportional representation), however some use multi-tier vote linkage, which usually leads to less proportional results.