To Waste or Not to Waste a Vote?

Based on mechanical effects that translate into psychological effects, electoral systems, and especially district magnitude (M), are said to inflict strategic voting. Voters are assumed to coordinate on M+1 viable candidates in order to minimise the risk of wasting their vote. This is most obvious in single-member districts with only one winning candidate. Cox predicts that coordination should also occur in multi-member constituencies, even though he expects voters’ capacity to coordinate to phase out with increasing district magnitude. 14 pre-election surveys conducted in six countries, asking voters for their preferred party, for their evaluation of the chances of individual parties/candidates to be elected, and for the party they will vote for allow to analyse this capacity in detail.