The System of Plural Voting

Imagine an exam where the topper gets to answer every question twice, once in their own script and once more added on top of a weaker student's paper. That is roughly the logic of plural voting — a system where some citizens' votes counted for more than others, on the theory that some voters deserved a bigger say than one person, one vote.

In two minutes

Plural voting was the historical practice of giving certain voters, usually on grounds of property, education, business ownership or university affiliation, more than one vote, and it is now almost universally rejected as directly inconsistent with the political equality that universal adult suffrage was designed to establish.

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