There would still be 27 seats up for grabs during provincial elections. However, they would be broken up differently.

The current districts would change, there would be 17 separate electoral districts in the province. The current boundaries would be moved so that each district represented roughly the same number of citizens.

Another 10 seats would be awarded according to the percentage of the popular vote, or proportionally.

Each Islander would have two votes to cast during election day.

The first vote you would cast on election day would be for the candidate you prefer in your individual electoral district. This is the vote to fill those first 17 seats in Province House.

These seats would be contested the same way our current system works. Individual candidates would run for votes in that district, either under a party banner or as an independent.

The candidate that achieves plurality - or 50 per cent plus one of all votes cast in that district - wins the seat.

Here's where the change occurs. Your second vote under the mixed member proportional system would be for the party of your choice. It could mirror your district vote, or be used to support another party.

When you go into the voting booth you'll have a ballot with the names of all the registered political parties on Prince Edward Island. Currently there are four: The Green Party, Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island, The New Democratic Party of P.E.I. and the Progressive Conservative Party of P.E.I.

You'll also notice a list of candidates is posted on the inside of the voting booth. It will have a list of 10 candidates that have been predetermined by the party. These people run province-wide and are not allowed to run in any of the districts in the province. They represent the party's preferred order should they win one of the 10 list candidate seats.

Each of the parties would have to submit their list in weeks leading up to the election. The order would be determined by the party, and the Commission on P.E.I.'s Electoral Future has recommended that all of the members of a given political party be included in determining how that party's list will look.

The system for determining those remaining 10 seats is called a seat allocation formula. It is designed to reflect the preferences of voters across the province according to the opinions expressed on that second ballot.

However, our proposed system of MMP goes a bit further, using a mathematical formula called the d'Hondt formula, which has been around since 1878.

A party would win one of the seats if it has around five per cent of the popular vote, and two seats if it were to capture 7.41 per cent of the vote.

The formula for the quotient is total number of votes received by the party's list divided by the number of seats the party has been allocated plus one.

This formula is followed until all 10 seats have been allocated.

So, if one of the parties wins three seats the top three candidates from its list become MLAs. Another party's top two might get in and so on.