A seat is, by definition, a parliamentary position in the country’s chambers of representation. Thus, in Spain the Congress of Deputies has 350 seats in 52 constituencies and the Senate with 266. The number of seats in each chamber does not coincide with the different countries on the planet. For example, in the United States, the House of Representatives has 435 seats and the United States Senate, 100.
How many votes are equivalent to one seat in Spain?
The vote of the voters who go to the polls is not the same in all constituencies and the distribution of deputies by constituency is done according to the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG ). However, the equivalence of votes in seats depends on various factors: the provincial constituency and the D’Hondt law system must be taken into account , by which the number of votes cast for each party is divided by the number of offices. elected officials assigned to each province, which, in turn, also depend on the number of inhabitants it has.
In this way, a much higher number of votes is needed to get a deputy in Madrid than for Zaragoza , hence it is possible for a party to win fewer seats if its votes are widely scattered in different constituencies as opposed to if it has been majority voted in a single province, although they represent fewer total votes.
If all the votes were worth the same in each of the constituencies, the electoral results would be very different and the smaller parties would benefit.
The blank vote
Small parties are also not favored by a blank vote, since they are considered valid to find the minimum percentage of 3% at the global level, which implies that blank votes increase the number of votes necessary to get a seat.
