Strategic Ticket Splitting and the Personal Vote in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems

This article examines ticket splitting in five different mixed-member electoral systems--Germany, New Zealand, Japan, Lithuania, and Russia--and indicates the shortcomings inherent in any analysis of such ticket splitting that does not take into account the presence of the personal vote. We find that the personal vote plays a central part in shaping ticket splitting in all of our cases except for Germany, a heavily party-oriented system in which we find evidence of only a weak personal vote but evidence of substantial strategic voting.