D'Hondt Method

The D'Hondt Method is a method used to elect candidates from political parties in approximate proportion as the proportion of votes won by that party.

To illustrate its use, suppose 10 seats are to be divided among 4 parties, receiving 25,000, 19,000, 12,000, and 8,000 votes apiece. A table is set up as follows:

The divisors in the first column are simply the numbers 1, 2, 3, ... in sequence, as many as are necessary. The numbers in each row are the votes for the party divided by the divisor; the numbers in the brackets are the ranks of these quotients. When the ten (or however many seats are to be apportioned) highest quotients have been allocated, each party gets as many seats as it has of the highest numbers. In this case, the parties are assigned 4, 3, 2, and 1 seat in order.