Danish voters have had the opportunity to cast a preferential vote in all kinds of elections since the 1920s. It is well known that electoral systems in Denmark are either a two-tier list PR system (for parliament) or an ordinary d’Hondt list system for the European Parliament as well as for local elections (municipal and regional). It is probably less well known that Denmark is one of a small set of countries where local party branches themselves are responsible for choosing between one or the other of two rather different forms of ordering – and selecting – party candidates on the lists (if the party’s list gain representation). The two forms are called “running in parallel” and “running in list order”, even though the latter term is not really an adequate description of how the system works. The consequences of these choices for which of the lists’ candidates are eventually elected are considerable, but the specific mechanics are probably not well understood by voters. The paper will explain how the two systems work – and illustrate this by using examples from recent elections at various levels – but it will also discuss why preferential voting is not used more than it is. Despite the potential impact on the selection of which candidate(s) from the list will eventually take the seats obtained, only 50 per cent of the voters use this option in parliamentary election, while about 75 per cent do so in local and European elections. Richard Katz once pointed to the consequences of preferential voting systems for intra-party relations between candidates and rival factions, so this topic should also be addressed in the paper.
