Italy Trentino Alto Adige Regional Council 2013

An election apportionment diagram is a graphic representation of

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

results and the seats in a plenary or

legislative body A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers o ...

. These charts can also represent data in easy-to-understand terms, for example, by grouping allied parties together.

Background

Election votes are often represented using

bar chart A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical variable, categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A ...

s or

pie chart A pie chart (or a circle chart) is a circular Statistical graphics, statistical graphic which is divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle and area) ...

s, frequently labeled with the corresponding percentage or number of votes. An example of this can be seen in the BBC Coverage of the 2019 parliamentary election () The

apportionment The legal term apportionment (; Mediaeval Latin: , derived from , share), also called delimitation, is in general the distribution or allotment of proper shares, though may have different meanings in different contexts. Apportionment can refer ...

of seats among the parties in a legislative body has a defined set of rules unique to each body. For example, the

Senate of Virginia The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Vir ...

states, Instead of using a bar or pie chart, the

of seats among parties in a legislative body such as a parliament can be more clearly represented by displaying the individual representatives of each party as dots in a pattern. The number of representatives is significant and easily understood visually. The dots are typically coded according to the

political color Political colours are colours used to represent a political ideology, movement or party, either officially or unofficially. They represent the intersection of colour symbolism and political symbolism. Politicians making public appearances w ...

of the respective parties. Traditionally presented as a seating chart of a plenary hall, it can also be represented in a more abstract fashion that loosely corresponds to the seating arrangement in a legislature, such as a form of half-donut chart as an abstract representation of a hemicycle, or a stylized representation of the

Westminster Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

, showing government, opposition, speaker and crossbenchers. In Germany, the order of the bars usually corresponds from left to right to the placement of the parties in the previous election and is thus based on the order given on the

ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th cent ...

, which is regulated in Section 30 of the . These charts can also represent data understandably. An example of this is politicians’ responses to the Orlando shootings.

Gallery

File:House of Lords composition.svg, Schematic diagram of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, showing government, opposition, cross-bench and speaker, without being an accurate representation of the seating layout File:NIAssembly20200111.svg, Stylised U-shaped diagram meant to depict the layout of the

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

File:(119th) US House of Representatives Seating.svg, An election apportionment diagram closely mirroring the actual seating layout of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

File:Bundestag Draft D transparent.png, An election apportionment diagram closely mirroring the actual seating layout of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

References

External links

*{{Commonscat-inline, Election apportionment diagrams
Parliament diagram creation toolTHE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND ITS MEMBERSHouse seating plan
Apportionment (politics) Statistical charts and diagrams

Background

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links