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Staggered elections

October 25, 2023

Not to be confused with Rolling election.

Staggered elections are elections where only some of the places in an elected body are up for election at the same time. For example, United States senators have a six-year term, but they are not all elected at the same time. Rather, elections are held every two years for one-third of Senate seats.

Staggered elections have the effect of limiting control of a representative body by the body being represented, but can also minimize the impact of cumulative voting.[1] Many companies use staggered elections as a tool to prevent takeover attempts. Some legislative bodies (most commonly upper houses) use staggered elections, as do some public bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Application in business Edit

A staggered board of directors or classified board is a prominent practice in US corporate law governing the board of directors of a company, corporation, or other organization, in which only a fraction (often one third) of the members of the board of directors is elected each time instead of en masse (where all directors have one-year terms). Each group of directors falls within a specified "class"—e.g., Class I, Class II, etc.—hence the use of the term "classified" board.[2] The work of the Shareholder Rights Project has had a significant effect on the number of classified boards on the S&P 500.[3]: 159 

In publicly held companies, staggered boards have the effect of making hostile takeover attempts more difficult; however, they are also associated with lower firm value.[4]: 10  When a board is staggered, hostile bidders must win more than one proxy fight at successive shareholder meetings in order to exercise control of the target firm. Particularly in combination with a poison pill, a staggered board that cannot be dismantled or evaded is one of the most potent takeover defenses available to U.S. companies.[5]

In corporate cumulative voting systems, staggering has two basic effects: it makes it more difficult for a minority group to get directors elected, as the fewer directorships up for election requires a larger percent of the equity to win; and it makes takeover attempts less likely to succeed as it is harder to vote in a majority of new directors.[6] Staggering may also however serve a more beneficial purpose, that is provide "institutional memory" — continuity in the board of directors — which may be significant for corporations with long-range projects and plans.[6]

Institutional shareholders are increasingly calling for an end to staggered boards of directors—also called "declassifying" the boards. The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2007 that 2006 marked a key switch in the trend toward declassification or annual votes on all directors: more than half (55%) of the S&P 500 companies have declassified boards, compared with 47% in 2005.[7]

Use in legislative bodies Edit

National Edit

Chamber Type Classes % of seats up per election Method of Staggering
Total 1 2 3
Argentine Chamber of Deputies Lower house 2
130 / 257
127 / 257
 Every constituency has seats in both classes, with roughly half of the seats contested in each class individually
Argentine Senate Upper house 3
24 / 72
24 / 72
24 / 72
 Each constituency has all its seats in one class only
Australian Senate Upper house 2
40 / 76
40 / 76
 Most constituencies have seats in both classes, with half of the seats contested in each class individually
Some constituencies have all of their seats contested in each and every class
Brazilian Senate Upper house 2
54 / 81
27 / 81
 Every constituency has seats in both classes, with two-thirds of the seats contested in class 1 and the remaining one-third in class 2
Senate of Chile Upper house 2
23 / 43
20 / 43
 Each constituency has all its seats in one class only
Senate of the Czech Republic Upper house 3
27 / 81
27 / 81
27 / 81
 Each constituency has all its seats in one class only
Senate (France) Upper house 2
174 / 348
174 / 348
 Each constituency has all its seats in one class only
Rajya Sabha (India) Upper house 3
77 / 245
78 / 245
78 / 245
House of Councillors (Japan) Upper house 2
124 / 248
124 / 248
 Every constituency has seats in both classes, with half of the seats contested in each class individually
Senate of Liberia Upper house 2
15 / 30
15 / 30
 Every constituency has seats in both classes, with half of the seats contested in each class individually
National Assembly (Nepal) Upper house 3
19 / 59
20 / 59
20 / 59
 Every constituency has seats in all three classes, with roughly a third of the seats contested in each class individually
Senate of Pakistan Upper house 2
52 / 104
52 / 104
 Every constituency has seats in both classes, with half of the seats contested in each class individually
Senate of the Philippines Upper house 2
12 / 24
12 / 24
 The Senate is elected nationwide at-large, with half of the seats contested in each class individually
United States Senate Upper house 3
33 / 100
33 / 100
34 / 100
 Every constituency has seats in two out of the three classes, with half of the seats contested in each of those classes individually
  • In the Australian Senate, a double dissolution election can happen, where all seats are contested. The 4 Territory seats are contested at each election.
  • Some chambers do not have all of its seats elected, such as in the Rajya Sabha where 12 seats are appointed by the president.
  • By-elections (special elections) can be held concurrently with general elections, increasing the number of seats up in an election.

State Edit

Argentina Edit

12 of the 24 provincial legislatures have staggered elections:

Australia Edit

In the federal Senate, half of the Senate's 76 members are eligible for re-election every 3 years. All members elected from states have a six-year term staggered over two election cycles; senators elected from the ACT and the NT have 3 year terms only. These half-Senate elections are usually held in conjunction with an election of all members for the Federal House of Representatives. There are rare instances in which a Federal election is held for the all members of the House of Representatives and all the members of the Senate at once, this is called a double dissolution election.

Three of Australia's five State Legislative Councils use staggered elections:

Local councils in Western Australia also have staggered elections.[8]

India Edit

All six Legislative councils of states have staggered elections:

United States Edit

27 of the State Senates in the United States have staggered elections:[9]

Local Edit

  • Some local councils in the United Kingdom, although the Electoral Commission in England has recommended that councils standardise on a 4-yearly whole council election cycle.[10]

Historical usage Edit

National Edit

Local Edit

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2016-08-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ See Faleye,O., 2007, Classified Boards, Firm value, and Managerial Entrenchment, Journal of Financial Economics83, 501-529.
  3. ^ Bebchuk, Lucian A.; Hirst, Scott; Rhee, June (2014-02-01). "Towards the Declassification of S&P 500 Boards". Rochester, NY. SSRN 2400652. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Hirst, Scott; Bebchuk, Lucian (2010-01-01). "Private Ordering and the Proxy Access Debate". The Harvard John M. Olin Discussion Paper Series. No. 653.
  5. ^ See Lucian Bebchuk, John C. Coates IV, and Guhan Subramanian, The Powerful Antitakeover Force of Staggered Boards: Theory, Evidence, and Policy, 54 Stan. L. Rev. 887 (2002).
  6. ^ a b Hillier, David; Ross, Stephen; Westerfield, Randolph; Jaffe, Jeffrey; Jordan, Bradford (2013). Corporate Finance (2nd European ed.). Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9780077139148.
  7. ^ Jared A. Favole, "Big Firms Increasingly Declassify Boards", The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10, 2007.
  8. ^ "Local Government Elections", Western Australian Electoral Commission.
  9. ^ "Length of terms of state senators", Ballotpedia, Accessed 24 August 2016.
  10. ^ Electoral Commission https://democracy.peterborough.gov.uk/documents/s47107/13a.%20Appendix%20A%20Electoral%20Commission%20The%20cycle%20of%20local%20government%20elections%20in%20England.pdf
  11. ^ a b Consell General - L'abstenció al Principat d'Andorra
  12. ^ "Direction des élections - Evolution de la législation électorale". elections.fgov.be.
  13. ^ Danmarks Statistik - Rigsdagsvalgene og folkeafstemningerne i april og maj 1953, p. 182
  14. ^ "Negentiende-eeuws districtenstelsel in Nederland". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  15. ^ "Geschiedenis kiesstelsel Eerste Kamer". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  16. ^ Akio Kamiko (2010, bilingual): 近代地方行政の黎明期(1868-1880年), pp. 7–8: 府県会規則 /The Start of Modern Local Government (1868 – 1880), pp. 10–11: Prefectural Assembly Law (Fukenkai Kisoku)

October 25, 2023
staggered, elections, confused, with, rolling, election, elections, where, only, some, places, elected, body, election, same, time, example, united, states, senators, have, year, term, they, elected, same, time, rather, elections, held, every, years, third, se. Not to be confused with Rolling election Staggered elections are elections where only some of the places in an elected body are up for election at the same time For example United States senators have a six year term but they are not all elected at the same time Rather elections are held every two years for one third of Senate seats Staggered elections have the effect of limiting control of a representative body by the body being represented but can also minimize the impact of cumulative voting 1 Many companies use staggered elections as a tool to prevent takeover attempts Some legislative bodies most commonly upper houses use staggered elections as do some public bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission Contents 1 Application in business 2 Use in legislative bodies 2 1 National 2 2 State 2 2 1 Argentina 2 2 2 Australia 2 2 3 India 2 2 4 United States 2 3 Local 3 Historical usage 3 1 National 3 2 Local 4 See also 5 NotesApplication in business EditA staggered board of directors or classified board is a prominent practice in US corporate law governing the board of directors of a company corporation or other organization in which only a fraction often one third of the members of the board of directors is elected each time instead of en masse where all directors have one year terms Each group of directors falls within a specified class e g Class I Class II etc hence the use of the term classified board 2 The work of the Shareholder Rights Project has had a significant effect on the number of classified boards on the S amp P 500 3 159 In publicly held companies staggered boards have the effect of making hostile takeover attempts more difficult however they are also associated with lower firm value 4 10 When a board is staggered hostile bidders must win more than one proxy fight at successive shareholder meetings in order to exercise control of the target firm Particularly in combination with a poison pill a staggered board that cannot be dismantled or evaded is one of the most potent takeover defenses available to U S companies 5 In corporate cumulative voting systems staggering has two basic effects it makes it more difficult for a minority group to get directors elected as the fewer directorships up for election requires a larger percent of the equity to win and it makes takeover attempts less likely to succeed as it is harder to vote in a majority of new directors 6 Staggering may also however serve a more beneficial purpose that is provide institutional memory continuity in the board of directors which may be significant for corporations with long range projects and plans 6 Institutional shareholders are increasingly calling for an end to staggered boards of directors also called declassifying the boards The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2007 that 2006 marked a key switch in the trend toward declassification or annual votes on all directors more than half 55 of the S amp P 500 companies have declassified boards compared with 47 in 2005 7 Use in legislative bodies EditNational Edit Chamber Type Classes of seats up per election Method of StaggeringTotal 1 2 3Argentine Chamber of Deputies Lower house 2 130 257 127 257 Every constituency has seats in both classes with roughly half of the seats contested in each class individuallyArgentine Senate Upper house 3 24 72 24 72 24 72 Each constituency has all its seats in one class onlyAustralian Senate Upper house 2 40 76 40 76 Most constituencies have seats in both classes with half of the seats contested in each class individuallySome constituencies have all of their seats contested in each and every classBrazilian Senate Upper house 2 54 81 27 81 Every constituency has seats in both classes with two thirds of the seats contested in class 1 and the remaining one third in class 2Senate of Chile Upper house 2 23 43 20 43 Each constituency has all its seats in one class onlySenate of the Czech Republic Upper house 3 27 81 27 81 27 81 Each constituency has all its seats in one class onlySenate France Upper house 2 174 348 174 348 Each constituency has all its seats in one class onlyRajya Sabha India Upper house 3 77 245 78 245 78 245House of Councillors Japan Upper house 2 124 248 124 248 Every constituency has seats in both classes with half of the seats contested in each class individuallySenate of Liberia Upper house 2 15 30 15 30 Every constituency has seats in both classes with half of the seats contested in each class individuallyNational Assembly Nepal Upper house 3 19 59 20 59 20 59 Every constituency has seats in all three classes with roughly a third of the seats contested in each class individuallySenate of Pakistan Upper house 2 52 104 52 104 Every constituency has seats in both classes with half of the seats contested in each class individuallySenate of the Philippines Upper house 2 12 24 12 24 The Senate is elected nationwide at large with half of the seats contested in each class individuallyUnited States Senate Upper house 3 33 100 33 100 34 100 Every constituency has seats in two out of the three classes with half of the seats contested in each of those classes individuallyIn the Australian Senate a double dissolution election can happen where all seats are contested The 4 Territory seats are contested at each election Some chambers do not have all of its seats elected such as in the Rajya Sabha where 12 seats are appointed by the president By elections special elections can be held concurrently with general elections increasing the number of seats up in an election State Edit Argentina Edit 12 of the 24 provincial legislatures have staggered elections Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies and Senate Buenos Aires City Unicameral legislature Catamarca Chamber of Deputies and Senate Chaco Unicameral legislature Corrientes Chamber of Deputies and Senate Formosa Unicameral legislature Jujuy Unicameral legislature La Rioja Unicameral legislature Mendoza Chamber of Deputies and Senate Misiones Unicameral legislature Salta Chamber of Deputies and Senate San Luis Chamber of Deputies and Senate Australia Edit In the federal Senate half of the Senate s 76 members are eligible for re election every 3 years All members elected from states have a six year term staggered over two election cycles senators elected from the ACT and the NT have 3 year terms only These half Senate elections are usually held in conjunction with an election of all members for the Federal House of Representatives There are rare instances in which a Federal election is held for the all members of the House of Representatives and all the members of the Senate at once this is called a double dissolution election Three of Australia s five State Legislative Councils use staggered elections New South Wales Legislative Council South Australian Legislative Council Tasmanian Legislative CouncilLocal councils in Western Australia also have staggered elections 8 India Edit All six Legislative councils of states have staggered elections Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Bihar Legislative Council Karnataka Legislative Council Maharashtra Legislative Council Telangana Legislative Council Uttar Pradesh Legislative CouncilUnited States Edit 27 of the State Senates in the United States have staggered elections 9 Alaska State Senate Arkansas State Senate California State Senate Colorado State Senate Delaware State Senate Florida State Senate Hawaii State Senate Illinois State Senate Indiana State Senate Iowa Senate Kentucky State Senate Missouri State Senate Montana State Senate Nebraska Legislature Nevada State Senate North Dakota State Senate Ohio State Senate Oklahoma State Senate Oregon State Senate Pennsylvania State Senate Tennessee State Senate Texas State Senate Utah State Senate Washington State Senate West Virginia State Senate Wisconsin State Senate Wyoming State Senate Local Edit Some local councils in the United Kingdom although the Electoral Commission in England has recommended that councils standardise on a 4 yearly whole council election cycle 10 Historical usage EditNational Edit General Council of Andorra 1867 1979 11 Chamber of Representatives and Senate of Belgium 1835 1919 12 Senate and Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia 1944 1964 Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica 1913 1948 Senate and Chamber of Representatives of Cuba 1902 1950 Landsting of Denmark 1915 1953 13 National Assembly of Ecuador 1945 1970 1984 1998 National Congress of Honduras until 1942 Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg 1922 1951 House of Representatives 1849 1888 14 and Senate 1848 1983 15 of the Netherlands National Congress of Nicaragua 1912 1932 First Chamber of Sweden 1867 1970 Local Edit Andorra communal councils 1867 1979 11 Belgium municipal councils and provincial councils 1836 1914 Spain municipal councils and provincial deputations until 1923 Japan prefectural assemblies 1878 1890s 16 See also EditIndustrial organization Mergers and acquisitions Takeover including hostile takeover United Kingdom company law United States corporate lawNotes Edit Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2011 07 17 Retrieved 2016 08 24 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link See Faleye O 2007 Classified Boards Firm value and Managerial Entrenchment Journal of Financial Economics83 501 529 Bebchuk Lucian A Hirst Scott Rhee June 2014 02 01 Towards the Declassification of S amp P 500 Boards Rochester NY SSRN 2400652 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Hirst Scott Bebchuk Lucian 2010 01 01 Private Ordering and the Proxy Access Debate The Harvard John M Olin Discussion Paper Series No 653 See Lucian Bebchuk John C Coates IV and Guhan Subramanian The Powerful Antitakeover Force of Staggered Boards Theory Evidence and Policy 54 Stan L Rev 887 2002 a b Hillier David Ross Stephen Westerfield Randolph Jaffe Jeffrey Jordan Bradford 2013 Corporate Finance 2nd European ed Berkshire McGraw Hill Education pp 34 35 ISBN 9780077139148 Jared A Favole Big Firms Increasingly Declassify Boards The Wall Street Journal Jan 10 2007 Local Government Elections Western Australian Electoral Commission Length of terms of state senators Ballotpedia Accessed 24 August 2016 Electoral Commission https democracy peterborough gov uk documents s47107 13a 20Appendix 20A 20Electoral 20Commission 20The 20cycle 20of 20local 20government 20elections 20in 20England pdf a b Consell General L abstencio al Principat d Andorra Direction des elections Evolution de la legislation electorale elections fgov be Danmarks Statistik Rigsdagsvalgene og folkeafstemningerne i april og maj 1953 p 182 Negentiende eeuws districtenstelsel in Nederland Parlement com in Dutch Retrieved 18 February 2019 Geschiedenis kiesstelsel Eerste Kamer Parlement com in Dutch Retrieved 18 February 2019 Akio Kamiko 2010 bilingual 近代地方行政の黎明期 1868 1880年 pp 7 8 府県会規則 The Start of Modern Local Government 1868 1880 pp 10 11 Prefectural Assembly Law Fukenkai Kisoku Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Staggered elections amp oldid 1177020155, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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