Legal Definitions - Droop quota

Droop quota is a term used in some proportional-representation elections to determine the minimum number of votes needed to win a legislative seat. The formula used to calculate the quota is based on the reciprocal of the number of representatives plus one, which is 1/(n + 1), where "n" is the number of representatives being elected. The term is named after Henry Richmond Droop, who developed the election format.

Let's say there are 10 representatives being elected in a district. The Droop quota would be calculated as 1/(10+1) = 0.0909. This means that a candidate would need to receive at least 9.09% of the total votes to win a seat.

The Droop quota is important in proportional-representation elections because it ensures that candidates who receive a fair share of the votes are elected. It also helps to prevent a small group of candidates from dominating the election results.