Dear John B. Hodges, approval and ranked pairs are not proportional methods. When these methods were being used to create an ordered party list then a majority of the voters of this party could fill all relevant positions.
I suggest that STV should be used to create an ordered party list. Please read: 1) Colin Rosenstiel, "Producing a Party List using STV," Voting Matters, issue 9, 1998; 2) Joseph Otten, "Ordered List Selection," Voting Matters, issue 9, 1998; 3) C. Hugh E. Warren, "An example of ordering elected candidates," Voting Matters, issue 10, 1999; 4) Joseph Otten, "Ordered List Selection - revisted," Voting Matters, issue 12, 2000. Markus Schulze ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
