Complex electoral law but only an "X" is enough. It is a mixed system, two-thirds proportional and one-third majority, born from the compromise between Pd, Fi, Lega, Ap, Svp and Civici e Innovatori. The group leader Dem Ettore Rosato was the midwife of the agreement, so much so that he gave the law its name: Rosatellum. The electoral law provides for the Chamber (net of 12 elected abroad) that 232 deputies are elected in as many single-member majority constituencies in a single round: the candidate who obtains the most votes is elected, even if he does not have 50%. Each candidate can be supported by a party or a coalition of parties, each of which presents short lists of candidates (2-4 names) to elect the deputies in the proportional part, which are 386 in all. They access the allotment of the proportional part parties that exceed the 3% barrier. Within the coalitions there is a further threshold: if a party does not exceed 1%, its votes are completely lost, if instead it is between 1 and 3% its votes are diverted "pro quota ”On the other coalition parties that have overcome the barrier. The ballot paper makes us understand the Rosatellum mechanism. Under the rectangle with the name of the candidates of the single-member constituency, there is the symbol of the party or parties that support it, and the lists of 2-4 proportional candidates. These are blocked price lists, that is without preference: according to the votes taken by the party, the election of the first, then the second and so on, will be triggered. The voter will just have to put an X on the symbol of the preferred party to give the vote both to the candidate of the single-member constituency and to the list of candidates of the proportional union. For the two coalitions present, the center-left and the center-right, a peculiarity of the Rosatellum consists in the possibility of the voter to vote by putting the X only on the name of the candidate of the single-member constituency. All votes of this type will be attributed, in addition to the candidate of the college, to all the parties of the coalition, which will divide them according to their percentage in that constituency. The same system applies to electing the 309 members of the Senate (another 6 are abroad): here there are 116 single-member constituencies and 32 proportional constituencies.
