Where the preferential ballot is in use, as it is in several American cities, the voters are asked to indicate, in columns provided for this purpose, not only their first but their second and third choices and even their further choices among the various candidates. The names of those candidates whom the voter does not want to support are left unmarked. When preferential ballots are counted, any candidate who has a clear majority of first choices is declared elected. But if no candidate obtains a majority of first choices, the second choices are added to the first choices and if the two totals combined give what would be a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate who received them is declared elected. In like manner the third choices are resorted to if necessary.[46] The candidate elected by the preferential system is practically always the choice of a majority among the voters, not the first choice of a majority always, but one whom a majority have indicated their willingness to support. The chief practical objection to the preferential ballot is that many voters do not take the trouble to mark their second and third choices. [Sidenote: The problem of minority representation.] =Proportional Representation.=[47]—Preferential voting should be distinguished from proportional representation, which is a plan of choosing legislative bodies in such a way that all considerable groups of voters will be represented in proportion to their own numbers. Whenever several representatives are elected on the same ballot it usually happens that one political party secures them all. So many voters adhere to the “straight ticket” that the entire party slate wins. The minority party, even though it may comprise nearly half the voters, in such cases obtains no representation at all. This, of course, does not give us a true system of representative government; hence various plans have been put forward for securing to “each considerable party or group of opinion” a representation corresponding to its numerical strength among the voters. The best known among these is the Hare Plan, which has been used in several foreign countries and, during recent years, in a few American cities.[48] [Sidenote: The Hare plan explained.]