scrutin de liste

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A method of voting practised at certain recent periods in the elections to the French Chamber of Deputies. Each elector votes on one ballot for the whole number of deputies to which his department is entitled, and can choose the candidates by writing in the names, or by using the party lists (as selected by the party electoral committees), with the privilege of making any combination of names at his pleasure. The opposite method is the scrutin d'arrondissement. in which the arrondissement is the basis of representation, and an elector votes only for the candidate or candidates of his immediate locality.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. Voting for a group of candidates for the same kind of office on one ticket or ballot, containing a list of them; -- the method, used in France, as from June, 1885, to Feb., 1889, in elections for the Chamber of Deputies, each elector voting for the candidates for the whole department in which he lived, as disting. from scrutin d'arrondissement (dȧ`rôN`dēs`mäN"), or voting by each elector for the candidate or candidates for his own arrondissement only.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. based on the principle of proportional representation; voters choose between party lists, the number elected from each list being determined by the percentage cast for each list out of the total vote