Proxy voting is a form of voting whereby a member of a decision-making body may delegate their voting power to a representative, to enable a vote in absence. The representative may be another member of the same body, or external. A person so designated is called a "proxy" and the person designating them is called a "principal". Proxy appointments can be used to form a voting bloc that can exercise greater influence in deliberations or negotiations. Proxy voting is a particularly important practice with respect to corporations; in the United States, investment advisers often vote proxies on behalf of their client accounts.Lemke and Lins, Regulation of Investment Advisers (Thomson West, 2017 ed.).
Related systems A related topic is liquid democracy, a family of electoral systems where votes are transferable and grouped by voters, candidates or combination of both to create proportional representation, and delegated democracy.
Another related topic is the so-called Proxy Plan, or interactive representation electoral system whereby elected representatives would wield as many votes as they received in the previous election. Oregon held a referendum on adopting such an electoral system in 1912.Grain Growers Guide (Canada), August 7, 1912, p. 10
It is possible for automatic proxy voting to be used in legislatures, by way of direct representation (this idea is essentially a form of weighted voting). Reformers propose that instead of electing members from single-member districts (that may have been gerrymandered), members be elected at large, but when seated each member cast the number of votes they received in the last election. Thus, if, for example, a state were allocated 32 members in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 32 candidates who received the most votes in the at-large election would be elected and seated, but each would cast a different number of votes on the floor and in committee. This proposal, some say, would allow for representation of minority views in legislative deliberations, as it does in deliberations at shareholder meetings of corporations. Such a concept was proposed in a submission to the 2007 Ontario Citizens' Assembly process.
Another example is Evaluative Proportional Representation (EPR). It elects all the members of a legislative body. Each citizen grades the fitness for office of as many of the candidates as they wish as either Excellent (ideal), Very Good, Good, Acceptable, Poor, or Reject. Multiple candidates may be given the same grade by a voter. Each citizen elects their representative at-large for a city council. For a large and diverse state legislature, each citizen chooses to vote through any of the districts or official electoral associations in the country. Each grades any number of candidates in the whole country. Each elected representative has a different voting power (a different number of weighted votes) in the legislative body. This number is equal to the total number of highest available grades counted for them from all the voters – no citizen's vote is "wasted". Each voter is represented equally.
Two real-life examples of weighted voting include the Council of Ministers of the European Union and the US Electoral College.
Use of proxy voting in legislatures The United States parliamentary manual Riddick's Rules of Procedure notes that, under proxy voting, voting for officers should be done by ballot, due to the difficulties involved in authentication if a member simply calls out, "I cast 17 votes for Mr. X."
Proxy voting is also an important feature in corporate governance in the United States through the proxy statement. Companies use proxy solicitation agencies to secure proxy votes.
The rules of some assemblies presently forbid proxy voting. Some legislators plan to forbid proxy voting in the United States House of Representatives.
A recent vote showed 53 Democrats and 26 Republicans voted by proxy. Forbidding proxy voting can result, however, in the absence of a quorum and the need to compel attendance by a sufficient number of missing members to get a quorum. See call of the house.
The Parliament of New Zealand allows proxy voting. Sections 155-156 of the Standing Orders of the New Zealand House of Representatives specify the procedures for doing so. A member can designate another member or a party to cast his or her vote. However, a party may not exercise proxies for more than 25% of its members (rounded upwards). The New Zealand Listener notes a controversial occurrence of proxy voting. The Labour Party was allowed to cast votes on behalf of Taito Phillip Field, who was frequently absent. Theoretically, this was to be allowed only if a legislator was absent on parliamentary business, public business or pressing private business, such as illness or bereavement.
Until the Republican reforms of 1995 banished the practice, proxy voting was also used in U.S. House of Representatives committees. Often members would delegate their vote to the ranking member of their party in the committee. Republicans opposed proxy voting on the grounds that it allowed an indolent Democratic majority to move legislation through committee with antimajoritarian procedures. According to this criticism, on days when Democratic committee members were absent, the Democratic leader in the committee would successfully oppose the sitting Republican majority by wielding the proxies of absent Democrats. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi temporary reinstated proxy voting in 2020 for members who were unable to be physically present in the chamber due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, proxy voting was temporarily introduced in the UK House of Commons. Deputy Chief Whip Stuart Andrew held a large number of proxy votes for other Conservative MPs, and at one stage in 2021 personally controlled a majority of votes in the whole house."Members Eligible for a Proxy Vote", Hansard 9 March 2021 He did not always cast these proxy votes the same way, instead following the instructions of individual MPs. "Why is the most rebellious Conservative MP still in a government job?", Stephen Bush, The New Statesman, 8 January 2021
Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein write, "In a large and fragmented institution in which every member has five or six places to be at any given moment, proxy voting is a necessary evil".
Elections
Proxy voting is sometimes described as "the frequency with which spouses, union workers, and friends of friends are in effect sent off to the polls with an assignment to complete." The potential for proxy voting exists in roughly one voter out of five, and it is about twice as high at the middle levels of the sophistication continuum. According to W. Russell Neuman, the net effect of the cues provided by friends and associates is not likely to be as significant as those of the political parties.
The possibility of expanded use of proxy voting has been the subject of much speculation. Terry F. Buss et al. write that internet voting would result in de facto approval of proxy voting, since passwords could be shared with others: "Obviously, cost-benefit calculations around the act of voting could also change substantially as organizations attempt to identify and provide inducements to control proxy votes without violating vote-buying prohibitions in the law."
One of the criticisms of proxy voting is that it carries a risk of fraud or intimidation. Another criticism is that it violates the concept of a secret ballot, in that paperwork may be filed, for instance, designating a party worker as one's proxy.
It has been proposed that proxy voting be combined with initiative and referendum to form a hybrid of direct democracy and representative democracy.accessed October 21, 2008 James C. Miller III, Ronald Reagan's budget director, suggested scrapping representative democracy and instead implementing a "program for direct and proxy voting in the legislative process." It has been suggested by Joseph Francis Zimmerman that proxy voting be allowed in New England town meetings.
Proxy voting can eliminate some of the problems associated with the public choice dilemma of bundling.
Albania According to Arch Puddington et al., in Albanian Muslim areas, many women have been effectively disenfranchised through proxy voting by male relatives.
Algeria In Algeria, restrictions on proxy voting were instituted in order to undermine the Islamic Salvation Front.
Canada In Canada, the province of Nova Scotia allows citizens to vote by proxy if they expect to be absent. The territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut also allow for proxy voting. Canadian prisoners of war in enemy camps were allowed to vote through proxy voting. David Stewart and Keith Archer opine that proxy voting can result in leadership selection processes to become leader-dominated. Proxy voting had only been available to military personnel since World War II, but was extended in 1970 and 1977 to include voters in special circumstances such as northern camp operators, fishermen, and prospectors. The Alberta Liberal Party ran into some difficulties, in that an unknown number of proxy ballots that were counted may have been invalid. Those who, through proxy voting or assistance of invalids, become knowledgeable of the principal's choice are bound to secrecy.
China Some Chinese provinces allow village residents to designate someone to vote on their behalf. Lily L. Tsai notes that "In practice, one family member often casts votes for everyone in the family even if they are present for the election." In 1997, a Carter Center delegation recommended abolishing the proxy voting that allowed one person to vote for three; the International Republican Institute had made a similar recommendation. Proxy voting also became an issue in relation to many of the Wenzhou people doing business outside. Most election disputes revolved around proxy votes, including the issues of who could represent them to vote and what kinds of evidence were acceptable for proxy voting. Intense competition made the proxy voting process more and more formal and transparent. Some villages required a notary to validate faxed proxy votes; some villages asked for faxed signatures; more often villages publicized those proxy votes so that villagers could directly monitor them. Taicang government reported a 99.4% voter turnout in its 1997 election, but a study showed that after removing proxy votes, only 48% of the eligible voters in the sample reported that they actually went to the central polling station to vote.
France In France, voters are allowed to temporarily give the power of attorney to another registered voter (online or by paper form) for purpose of voting in an election, provided that the voter making the request visits the national police station or gendarmerie with proof of identity. Applying voters then receive an e-mail receipt to indicate the validation or invalidation of their request. This method is allowed instead or early or mail voting.
Proxy voting was intensely used in both rounds of the 2024 snap legislative election, when many voters were travelling or scheduled to travel on holiday when the election was called. The election resulted in historically-high turnout for a legislative election.
Gabon According to Mim Kelber, "in Central Africa, all it takes for a man to cast a proxy vote for his wife is to produce an unwitnessed letter mentioning the name of the person to whom the voting power is delegated." The Gabon respondent to an Inter-Parliamentary Union letter commented, "It has been observed that this possibility was exploited to a far greater extent by men than by women, for reasons not always noble."
Guyana