General ticket representation is a particular method of electing members of a multi-member state delegation to the United States House of Representatives. States using this method elected their entire delegation in a statewide manner, either on a single ballot (by means of bloc voting) or on separate ballots for each seat, but always allowing every voter in the state to vote for a candidate for each seat. It was a system used frequently until restricted by the 1842 Apportionment Bill and subsequent legislation, most recently in 1967. After 1842 it was used only occasionally when permitted for states with small delegations or in the years immediately following their admission to the union.
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While the framers of the United States Constitution probably intended members of the House of Representatives to be elected from geographically defined single member districts, the Constitution did not so specify. For convenience or in order to assure majority control, many states adopted general ticket representation. In doing so it ensured that a group that might be a majority in only a portion of the state would be always out voted by the larger majority throughout the state.
General ticket usage
This is a table of every instance of the use of the general ticket in the United States Congress.
French version
The scrutin de liste (Fr. scrutin, voting by ballot, and liste, a list) was, before World War I, a system of election of national representatives in France by which the electors of a department voted for all the deputies to be elected in that department. It was comparable with the general ticket. It was distinguished from the scrutin d'arrondissement, also called scrutin uninominal, under which the electors in each arrondissement voted only for the deputy to be elected in it.
Nowadays, it is used on two-round bases to elect one third of the members of the Regional Councils, so to ensure a landslide victory to the party which receives a majority.
Italian version
In Italy, general ticket representation is the system used to elect one fifth of the members of the Regional Councils since 1995. As in French version, its goal is to ensure the assembly control by the leading coalition of parties. Differently from France, it is used on a single round of vote.