later changed this to seven or eight hundred separate voting blocks. His system at first had it that each voter would sign and check his vote. By 1873, however, he had adapted his ideas to take account of the secret vote. Under Hare's method, simply dividing the vote by the number of seats constituted the quota. This is what we now call the "Hare quota". Surplus votes (votes over and above the quota) were to be distributed 'at random'. (This whole-vote method of transferring surplus votes held by successful candidates is now used in the lower house in national elections in Ireland and Malta.) Hare's famous original work Machinery of Representation appeared in 1857 (in two editions) and many editions of his equally famous Treatise on the Election of Representatives: Parliamentary and Municipal appeared between 1859 and 1873. In the preface to the fourth edition, he stated his belief that proportional representation would 'end the evils of corruption, violent discontent and restricted power of selection or voter choice'. A great deal of writing on that theory developed and several societies were formed worldwide for its adoption although Hare pointed out that his scheme was not meant to bear the title 'representation for minorities'. Moreover, he noted in the preface to his third edition a point that was to become a feature of Tasmanian politics: Can it be supposed that the moment the electors are allowed a freedom of choice they will immediately be seized with a desire to vote for some distant candidate with whom they are unacquainted, rather than for those whom they know – who are near to them, whose speeches they have heard and who have personal recommendations to the favour and respect of the town and neighbourhood. Finally, with the help of contemporaries such as John Stuart Mill and Catherine Helen Spence, Hare popularised the idea of proportional representation worldwide. The permanent recognition of his name in the Tasmanian system is perhaps appropriate despite little being left of his original proposals. His death in May 1891 occurred several years before the first use of proportional representation in Tasmania in 1897. The former London headquarters of the Electoral Reform Society was named in his honour. Systems Hare lends his name to the following: a system of proportional representation, also known as Single Transferable Vote (STV) a particular quota being used by STV, the Hare quota a seat